Infighting by senior officials is doing Nelson Mandela Bay metro no good

May 08, 2026 at 10:57 am2 min read

Gqeberha’s top politicians and senior officials did not cover themselves in glory as they made yet another appearance before parliament’s local government portfolio committee on Wednesday.

Mayor Babalwa Lobishe and her team had been called back to the co-operative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) portfolio committee to answer to a range of issues, which include the two-year-long suspension of city manager Noxolo Nqwazi, the irregular appointment of acting top city bureaucrats and a general lack of service delivery.

But what transpired during the proceedings revealed a city whose leadership is at war with itself.

Although the Nelson Mandela Bay metro is run by a coalition government, the leadership conflict is not between various parties making up the multi-party government.

Instead, as a couple of MPs pointed out during the proceedings, they seem to be located within the leading coalition partner, the ANC, itself.

To be more precise, the conflict seems to be between the mayor and speaker Eugene Johnson. They openly disagreed with each other in front of the portfolio committee on a number of issues relating to council decisions.

This prompted one MP to remark that the city was facing political instability due to their differences.

“I wonder if they sit and discuss issues as the mayor, the speaker and chief whip — so if things are left like this, that metro will collapse because there seems to be a cold war between these two offices — the speaker and the mayor,” the MP said.

His chilling warning needs to be taken seriously by council as such instability does not bode well for quality service delivery in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro.

The metro is currently faced with too many problems to be distracted by infighting among its most senior politicians.