Motion to oust Trollip as Nelson Mandela Bay mayor brought forward

Nelson Mandela Bay metro mayor Athol Trollip and the rest of the municipal troika and the mayoral committee could be removed sooner than initially anticipated.

This follows a petition by the majority of the 120 councillors for the motion of no confidence in Trollip‚ council speaker Jonathan Lawack‚ and council's chief whip to be brought forward to March 29.

The initial date requested by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) for the motion on Trollip’s removal was April 6. However TimesLive understands that Lawack notified the EFF that DA councillors would be out of town on party duty that day.

EFF has now requested Lawack to move the date of the special council meeting forward to March 29. That date is already set for an ordinary council meeting.

EFF caucus leader Zilindile Vena told TimesLive that the party wants the motions to be dealt with in the morning before the ordinary meeting‚ and then the ordinary meeting can convene after.

“The speaker advised that we should look for an alternative day. Because we do not want any logistical issues‚ we called for the special meeting to start before the ordinary one. There is precedence to this: on January 26 two meetings set on the same day‚ we first dealt with the special meeting and later with another meeting‚” Vena said.

A petition signed by 62 councillors requests the speaker to grant the special meeting for March 29 and further requests the removal and new appointment of speaker‚ mayor‚ chief whip‚ and mayoral committee. The petition calls for the reinstatement of former deputy mayor Mongameli Bobani.

After Bobani’s sacking in November subsequent to his relationship with Trollip breaking down‚ the council resolved to dissolve the position of executive deputy mayor.

The EFF has previously indicated that their preferred candidate to replace Trollip was former Finance deputy minister Mcebisi Jonas.

The petition calls on the council resolution to be rescinded. This is not the first no-confidence motion against Trollip. Last year the Patriotic Alliance tabled a motion against him‚ but it failed when the EFF voted with the DA.