The cracks are starting to show in the coalition that governs Nelson Mandela Bay, with the UDM threatening to boycott party meetings and abstain from voting in council if specific demands are not met.
This comes less than a month after the coalition unveiled its strategy document and labelled itself the “government of local unity”.
The ANC, NA, AIC, AIM, UDM, DOP, GOOD and PAC formed a coalition in November and, with the support of the PA, the group has a combined 60 seats in council.
But if the UDM withdraws its support, the coalition will not be able to pass any item in council without the help of councillors on the backbenches.
The threat to withdraw from the coalition emerged in a letter sent by UDM regional co-ordinator Siyabonga Nguqu to the ANC’s Bay secretary, Luyolo Nqakula, last week.
Nguqu said the party had an issue with the unfair allocation of political deployments as well as arts and culture executive director Noxolo Nqwazi’s appointment as acting city manager.
In the December 22 letter, Nguqu demanded that Nqakula step down as chair of the political management council (PMC), which is made up of 12 representatives of the eight parties.
This council is meant to meet once a month to thrash out council programmes and policy and resolve any impasses that may arise.
Nguqu said the party was also unhappy with NA secretary Vasu Padayachee being the secretary of the PMC.
As Nqakula and Padayachee are not councillors, Nguqu said they needed to be removed from these positions.
“The UDM is highly opposed to any person who is not a councillor to participate in the affairs of the municipality thereby exerting unnecessary political interference in the governance of the municipality through his or her political party,” Nguqu said.
“This is in complete contravention of principles of good governance and local government legislation as it encourages political interference by the ANC and NA in the affairs of the municipality.
“Failure to adequately resolve the issues urgently leaves [the] UDM with no option but to withdraw its support for this coalition government by not participating in the political management council and completely abstain from voting with any political parties.”
Nguqu could not be reached for comment.
UDM Bay spokesperson Yongama Zigebe said the letter was addressed to the PMC.
“The intentions of the letter are stated there,” Zigebe said.
The threats, however, have been shrugged off by the coalition parties, which feel that everything will be resolved when the PMC next meets.
Nqakula said the letter would be tabled at the next PMC meeting scheduled for January.
“From where I am standing, they have raised these issues but the PMC is structured in terms of the coalition and this is explained in the agreement,” he said.
With regard to claims of possible political interference, Nqakula said: “The PMC does not politically interfere with the administration, [and] it also does not directly interfere with deployees or what they do.”
He said all parties had been consulted during the discussions on political office support.
“In its last meeting, the PMC was verbally [apprised of] this. It was a collective decision of the PMC which the UDM was part of.”
He said the PMC was not responsible for the appointment of Nqwazi.
“The PMC as a structure and as per its framework does not have the authority of presiding over disciplinary matters.
“There are independent bodies that exist for this, and these are far from the PMC,” Nqakula said.
Nguqu said the PMC had agreed on the appointment of Nqwazi even though the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) was investigating the municipality for Covid-19 spending while she was acting city manager at the height of the pandemic in 2020.
“The UDM demands that the SIU report be tabled in council and that Nqwazi be removed from the acting position with immediate effect until all the disciplinary processes are dealt with.”
Nguqu also accused the ANC of appointing its members to all the strategic political positions.
“UDM has on several occasions engaged with you in an endeavour to ensure that the existing political deployment positions are equally allocated among the political parties in this coalition agreement.
“However, such engagements were without any success and didn’t bear any positive fruits as the ANC has allocated to itself all the strategic positions inclusive of other existing generic positions.
AIC councillor Thsonono Buyeye said as far as he was aware the coalition was still intact.
“We have all agreed and signed the agreement. We have also agreed that this document is a living document and parties are allowed to introduce new things as we go along.”
AIM councillor Khusta Jack said he had not yet read the letter.
NA councillor Gary van Niekerk referred all questions to Padayachee, who said the letter was yet to be discussed within the coalition.
“There is nothing in our coalition agreement that says a non-councillor is not allowed to take up a position in the PMC.”
“As soon as we have the next meeting, we will iron out all these issues
PAC councillor Basi Kamana dismissed any suggestion that cracks had started to appear in the coalition.
“This is just part of normal discussions. We will meet and resolve everything,” he said.
GOOD councillor Lawrence Troon said he disagreed with the issues raised by Nguqu.
“All the discussions on these issues were done more than a month ago.
“When we concluded the coalition talks you could only assume people were happy with everything.”
He said these issues had also not been raised in any coalition talks.
“It is concerning that people raise these issues now, once the process has been completed.”
DOP regional secretary Siphiwe Madlavu could not be reached for comment.
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