Northern Alliance’s Gary van Niekerk elected new Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor

The Northern Alliance’s Gary van Niekerk has been elected as the new mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay.

Babalwa Lobishe was voted in as deputy mayor after old deputy mayor Khusta Jack declined his nomination

The election of Van Niekerk comes after the Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) Retief Odendaal was ousted in a motion of no confidence.

Odendaal ousted

Odendaal was removed on Friday through the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and African National Congress (ANC) alliance in The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.

The motion of no confidence was brought before the council by the EFF during a special council meeting and was supported by the Northern Alliance, Patriotic Alliance, and the ANC.

The EFF brought a motion against Odendaal because they said he failed to act against his deputy mayor, Mkhuseli Jack after the Auditor-General had found that companies belonging to Jack did business with the municipality.

However, the AG later cleared Jack of any wrongdoing.

Van Niekerk is the third mayor since the last local government elections in 2021.

ANC councillor Eugene Johnson was elected as the new Speaker of the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.

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Disappointment

Odendaal told Newzroom Afrika the DA disappointed that he was removed as mayor.

“We are sad about the fact that our coalition can’t continue. We’ve seen last year under an ANC led coalition that this city nearly collapsed and there was absolutely no service delivery for our people.

“We have got reason to believe that this new EFF/ANC coalition will just undo the good work that we have done over the last couple of months. We want to assure the people of Nelson Mandela Bay that we will continue the good fight and that we will always put the city first, Odendaal said.”

Odendaal was elected the mayor of the municipality in September last year, after former Nelson Mandela Bay mayor, ANC councillor Eugene Johnson, was booted out of office.

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