Nelson Mandela Bay mayor remains in office amid internal party battles

National Alliance (NA) leader Gary van Niekerk will remain as Nelson Mandela Bay mayor after a successful court action challenging his ousting from office.

On Wednesday, the Eastern Cape High Court in Gqeberha ruled in favour of Van Nierkerk and his fellow NA member, John “Stag” Mitchell, thus, paving the way for the pair to retain their positions as councillors.

Van Niekerk and Mitchell went to the court after city manager Noxolo Nqwazi’s letter to the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC), which informed the electoral body about the councillors’ “vacant” proportional representation (PR) seats.

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Nqwazi sent the letter to the IEC after the pair was expelled in absentia from the NA for allegedly bringing their party into disrepute following disciplinary hearing earlier this month.

The hearing found them guilty of contravening the NA’s Constitution through their conduct.

This was not the first time Van Niekerk and Mitchell’s seats were declared vacant.

Interdict granted

The high court on Wednesday granted Van Niekerk and Mitchell an interim order interdicting the IEC from declaring their seats vacant.

The interdict was part A of the application.

In part B, Van Niekerk wants the court to establish the legitimacy of the two NA structures in the Nelson Mandela Bay metro as well as and the congress that elected the leaders of the party’s faction that expelled them.

The faction is led by Bevan Brown and Japie Jansen, who claim to be NA’s national chair and president respectively.

Speaking to SABC News on Wednesday, Van Niekerk said he had no doubt about emerging victorious in the court case.

“If you followed this whole saga over the last two years, the city manager declared the vacancies twice and now we have won [on two occasions]. We knew that we were going to be successful, it’s just that the chaos ensued as a result of the actions of the city manager,” he said.

Van Niekerk, who was elected as Nelson Mandela Bay mayor in May, said he remained the leader of his party.

The mayor also reiterated that he believed Ngwazi declared the vacancies to avoid her possible removal.

“We will keep on going to court every time she does this, but it’s all to do with the disciplinary action that we have instituted against her. On Friday, there should be a special council meeting we will be convening just for the one item to deal with a possible suspension,” Van Niekerk said.

City manager on trial

Last week, a council meeting was postponed to 20 October to allow Ngwazi to seek clarity on the charges against her and time to respond, according to News24.

Ngwazi is on trial in the Gqeberha Specialised Commercial Crimes Court on charges of fraud, money laundering, corruption, and contravening the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA).

She was arrested by the Hawks last October for her alleged role in the unlawful signing off on a R24 million tender and is out on bail.

This week, the magistrate presiding over the matter refused to recuse herself from the case.

The recusal application was brought last month on the grounds Magistrate Vusiwe Mnyani was biased against the defence and lenient on the state, News24 reported.

The case has been postponed to 31 October.

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