Nelson Mandela Bay mayor Gary van Niekerk has survived two fight another day after surviving a motion of no confidence.
This came after a legal opinion provided to the municipality on Monday revealed that the election process that led to Qaba being hired was manipulated by the board.
It urged the municipality to consider seeking a judicial review to invalidate his appointment and act against the board for its decision.
The legal opinion and its recommendations were accepted by the council.
Earlier, the council meeting started with disruptive clashes as councillors remained divided on whether to obtain a legal opinion to authenticate Van Niekerk’s tenure.
This led to a caucus break that was meant to last only five minutes to decide whether the mayor was legally allowed to be at the meeting because his party recently changed its name from the Northern Alliance to National Alliance.
Opposition councillors argued that the National Alliance was not represented in the council and that a legal opinion should be sought to determine if Van Niekerk could rightfully attend the sitting.
This caused the meeting to spiral out of control and ultimately led to hours of delay, with the proposal rejected after a vote later.
On the vote for Van Niekerk’s removal, the ANC (48), EFF (8) and Patriotic Alliance (2), National Alliance (2), PAC (1) and AIC (1) rejected the motion.
Bevan Brown, who regards himself as a Northern Alliance councillor, did not attend the meeting.
A notice to table a motion of no confidence against Van Niekerk was filed in June — less than a month after he took office.
Source: https://www.news24.com/news24/southafrica/news/nelson-mandela-bay-mayor-survives-motion-of-no-confidence-20230822
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