Two of the six ANC councillors who signed a petition for a special meeting to remove Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Mongameli Bobani say they were tricked as they believed the sitting was to debate service delivery-related matters.
The city’s political head of human settlements, Andile Mfunda, and Motherwell ward councillor Morgan Tshaka said they were shocked to see their names attached to a petition submitted by the DA to debate a no-confidence motion against Bobani.
The Herald’s sister publication Weekend Post reported on Saturday that the DA, with the backing of COPE, the ACDP, Patriotic Alliance and six ANC councillors, had submitted a petition to speaker Buyelwa Mafaya’s office urging her to hold a special meeting by Friday this week.
The petition contains the signatures of ANC councillors Andile Lungisa, Mfunda, Tshaka, Becinga Mbuqu, Xola Tyali and Mzuvukile Boti as well as PA councillor Marlon Daniels, who is a member of the coalition government.
Their signatures are on a separate paper which does not have a heading and was submitted along with the covering letter requesting the meeting and the signatures of the DA, COPE and ACDP councillors.
While they are refusing to divulge the name of the person who supposedly misled them, Mfunda and Tshaka distanced themselves from the petition.
The Herald understands that Lungisa is the one who canvassed for the signatures.
On Sunday, Mfunda said he was not collaborating with the DA to remove Bobani.
“I have no problems with the mayor, I am a member of the mayor’s mayoral committee,” Mfunda said.
“The thing I signed wasn’t to say the mayor must be removed but rather to petition the speaker to call a special council meeting to deal with services and budget items such as the passing of the Ironman agreement.”
Tshaka said he had also signed the petition in the belief that the meeting would deal with service delivery matters.
“I distance myself from any talks of the removal of the mayor,” Tshaka said.
“The ANC never discussed this nor did it give us a mandate to remove Bobani.”
Mfunda said all of the ANC councillors whose names appeared on the petition had gathered at the Noninzi Luzipho building in the city centre to discuss human settlements issues as well as infrastructure issues following continuous service delivery protests in the city.
Boti referred questions to ANC chief whip Bicks Ndoni, while attempts to reach Tyali and Mbuqu were unsuccessful.
Ndoni could not be reached for comment. Lungisa declined to comment.
Daniels said he had been part of a meeting of the “black caucus” on Thursday, where Bobani’s removal was discussed.
Also present at the meeting were representatives of the ANC, AIC and EFF.
The UDM and United Front did not attend.
“While I was in that meeting, I had to excuse myself because I had another meeting to attend related to my portfolio,” Daniels said.
“When the petition came to me with no heading, I decided to sign it because it was coming from the black caucus.
“I accepted that there must have been a resolution taken to have a special council meeting as a team player, I decided to sign it.”
Asked who had approached him to sign the petition, Daniels said it was Lungisa, who told him it was for a special council meeting.
“I said cool and I signed it.”
Daniels said the decision by Mafaya to declare a council recess two weeks ago until after the Ward 20 by-election on September 18 had not been discussed with any of the coalition partners.
“I’m in favour of any council meeting that can sit so that we can get the workload off our backs,” he said.
“A lot of items need to be dealt with.
“I’m not in favour of unilateral decisions.
“So if there is a meeting to deal with people in the special council meeting, I’m in favour of it.”
Mafaya is obliged, according to Rule 4.2 of the council rule book, to hold a meeting if the majority of the councillors request it.
With the signatures of Daniels and the six ANC councillors as well as the opposition parties, 66 councillors have signed out of a total of 120.
ANC regional task team coordinator Luyolo Nqakula said he had seen the petition with the names of some of the party’s councillors.
“We’ll be meeting on Monday and Tuesday to consolidate our view and approach on the matter,” Nqakula said.
An unshaken Bobani said he was confident that come August 23 he would remain the mayor of the metro.
“I sleep peacefully at night knowing the people have confidence in this black coalition government,” he said.
“The DA will never come back into power, though they may try whatever crooked ways to come back.
“Even after 2021, they will not come back into power because this coalition is bringing services to the people.”
Asked what he thought of coalition members signing the petition, Bobani said the councillors had called to tell him that they had been tricked into signing the document.
“They distanced themselves from it and said they thought they were signing a service delivery-related document.
“This coalition government is performing – even right now we received a nod from the National Treasury saying we’re in the top five in the country to have a healthy balance sheet, despite the DA saying we’re not performing.
“I’ve always said business is open in the metro and people’s money is safe,” Bobani said.
DA caucus leader Athol Trollip said the DA, COPE and ACDP had three no-confidence motions on the agenda for the next council meeting.
“When that occurs, we want these dealt with,” he said.
He deferred questions about ANC signatures appearing on the petition to the ANC.
There have been simmering tensions within the coalition government for the past couple of months, with the relationship between the ANC and Bobani especially strained.
The ANC and DA have been holding separate talks at provincial level about the possibility of working together to remove Bobani.
A meeting between the coalition partners two weeks ago became extremely heated, according to insiders, with Bobani and Lungisa at each other’s throats.
It is believed that Lungisa criticised Bobani for not attending critical meetings to discuss matters of governance.
Bobani is said to have stood up and pointed at Lungisa, saying “andikoyiki wena ”– loosely translated, “I’m not afraid of you”.
“All he [Bobani] is interested in is knowing if Afrisec has been paid, if others have been paid also,” one ANC insider said.
“When we have compliance meetings, he’s not there.
“When we have meetings discussing the National Treasury, he’s not there.
“When we’re discussing service delivery-related issues, he’s not there.
“All he does is put undue pressure on our acting municipal manager to make illegal decisions,” the insider said.
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