Special council to oust Athol Trollip adjourned

The Nelson Mandela Bay special council meeting scheduled to vote on an EFF motion of no confidence in Athol Trollip and the removal of council speaker Jonathan Lawack has collapsed once again.

The previous meeting with the same agenda descended into chaos last week, and the meeting was adjourned.

An ANC councillor had asked to rise on a point order when the speaker called for the meeting to proceed to attend to the agenda.

Order of motions on the council meeting agenda:

• The removal of incumbent executive mayor Athol Trollip
• The removal of the chief whip
• Rescinding the decision to remove the deputy mayor post
• Appointing a new mayor
• Removal of all current portfolio heads of council committees and appoint new heads
• Removal of current speaker

However, the speaker did not acknowledge the ANC councillor leading to opposition party councillors accusing Lawack of suspending the rules.

Opposition parties then broke into song, which prompted DA councillors and coalition partners leaving the chamber.

Opposition party councillors accused the speaker of being impatient, and of being guided by the mayor and the DA, which was clearly indicated by them leaving the special council meeting. They said the DA did not want the meeting to continue.

“Our responsibility as parties is to come back again to ensure that the meeting continues even if they decided to come two weeks or after a month,” the ANC councillor said.

He said 61 councillors who had proposed the special council meeting had shown discipline today, but the speaker disregarded rule 37 by not acknowledging a councillor who rose on a point of order.

The ANC councillor said the DA and the speaker cannot be allowed to tamper with the rules and that they do not want to go to court, calling for a follow-up meeting to handle the special council meeting agenda.

The EFF said the speaker had the clear intention to collapse the meeting, does not want to be called into order, hence he did not adhere to rule 37.

“They are doing everything to protect Trollip that is why they opted to collapse the meeting,” the EFF councillor said.