The ANC national leadership says it is at an advanced stage to find a suitable candidate to replace Athol Trollip as mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.
The party’s leadership was in Port Elizabeth to craft strategies to win back the confidence of communities. The ANC lost the metro during the 2016 municipal polls to a coalition government between UDM and DA before deputy mayor, Mongameli Bobani was ousted.
The EFF would need to garner 61 member council majority to push the motion of no confidence against mayor Athol Trollip.
It is the only party standing in the way when opposition parties attempted to remove Mongameli Bobani last year.
The EFF would need the backing of the ANC which has 50 seats in council. The party wants former deputy Finance minister, Mcebisi Jonas to take over the reins whilst the ANC has indicated that they will not be dictated to.
“ANC has its own internal processes but we will find a suitable candidate and people of this metro will be happy with the person we will choose to provide leadership to them, so we are quite confident,” said ANC spokesperson, Pule Mabe.
Opposition parties are also calling for the removal of chief whip, Werner Senekal and Speaker Jonathan Lawack.
They also want all portfolios under new political heads. The DA believes the metro would be unstable after the motion is passed.
“All the work that has been done after local government elections will be unstable and corruption will be promoted again in the city, the metro has been the most corrupt city in South Africa and da led coalition has done well thus far and people can attest to that ” DA’s Werner Senekal.
Political commentators in the region believe the ANC would need to find a corrupt-free candidate. That candidate will have to manage successful politics of coalition.
“The ANC would need to find somebody who will make both parties happy including smaller parties, somebody who is not going to be corrupted to issue tenders freely, they have a major task to impress everyone because political of coalition are not easy to manage, that person should be able to champion the interest of both eff and ANC and smaller parties and it’s not easy to make everybody happy, “said political analyst Ongama Mtimka.
The council meeting is scheduled for the 29th of this months.
