NMB council meeting collapses as leadership vacuum derails flood response briefing

An urgently convened Nelson Mandela Bay council meeting on Thursday evening was downgraded to an information-sharing session after councillors argued it could not lawfully proceed without an appointed acting city manager.

The special sitting had been called to brief councillors on the metro’s response to severe flooding, including evacuations, infrastructure repairs and disaster interventions, following days of heavy rain across the city.

However, opposition parties argued that council business could not legally proceed without a recognised head of administration.

The metro has lacked a legally appointed acting city manager since late March, following the expiration of former COO Lonwabo Ngoqo’s second three-month term. Although Ngoqo continued in the role through April, a council meeting on 30 April to appoint his successor stalled due to procedural disputes and eligibility concerns.

Chief Financial Officer Jackson Ngcelwane was nominated for the acting city manager post, but his eligibility was questioned in correspondence sent to Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Zolile Williams. He has since declined the position.

The municipality has asked Williams to deploy a provincial official to fill the position, saying it has exhausted its pool of eligible internal candidates.

DA councillor Gustav Rautenbach said the party would not participate in a council meeting without a formal agenda or clear recommendations for consideration.

“If we don’t have an acting city manager, this meeting can’t continue. You will recall, Speaker, that we requested that the Cogta MEC second someone to act in the position, but it does not seem like it happened. I’m giving notice that the DA will not be part of this meeting because we believe that it will be illegal and unlawful.”

The EFF also boycotted the meeting after Speaker Eugene Johnson refused to allow budget and treasury head Khanya Ngqisha to table a motion of exigency seeking to reappoint Ngoqo as acting city manager.

Ngoqo is ineligible for further appointment, having already served two three-month acting terms — the maximum permitted under the applicable regulations.

Ngqisha said that if he was not allowed to table the motion, he would log out of the virtual session.

‘Pointless’

“We agree with Councillor Rautenbach that we cannot take part in a meeting without an acting city manager,” he said. “In a disaster situation, it is pointless to hold such a meeting with no head of administration.”

Mayor Babalwa Lobishe said the meeting was called to share information relating to the floods, evacuation of victims and infrastructure damages caused by the heavy storms that began on Tuesday.

Lobishe said the acting executive director for safety and security, Shadrack Sibiya, and another official would make presentations.

“We feel compelled to share with councillors on a formal platform the interventions we have made and the impact of the severe weather we are faced with. For now, we are not here to declare [anything]; we can only do so once the minister does so.

“Two MECs will visit the Bay to assess the extent of the damage, who will also assist us in an application [for emergency funding] to the national government because this rain will continue until Saturday.”

The meeting ended when Sibiya failed to appear, as frustrated councillors demanded to know why they had been summoned when they already received daily updates through the Joint Operations Committee (JOC).

Call for intervention

The governance dispute has been further amplified by the Nelson Mandela Bay Civil Society Coalition, which has called on the Eastern Cape provincial government to consider a stringent intervention after the municipality failed to appoint an acting city manager.

The coalition says the leadership vacuum has contributed to delays in essential procurement processes, including the purchasing of fuel during the ongoing floods.

Coalition chair Monga Peter said Section 139(5) of the Constitution provides for provincial intervention where a municipality is unable to meet its obligations to provide basic services or manage its financial affairs.

Peter said the municipality had reached a point where provincial intervention was necessary, after emergency services were compromised during the floods.

He said response vehicles had been left without fuel due to delays in appointing service providers to supply and manage fuel procurement.

In an interim response, Gift of the Givers donated R50,000 worth of fuel to enable municipal teams to continue responding to flood victims and providing emergency assistance.

“The inability to secure fuel for emergency services during a disaster, coupled with ongoing administrative paralysis, constitutes a serious and sustained breach of its obligations. We therefore call on the provincial executive to urgently intervene and consider invoking constitutional measures to restore governance, functionality and public confidence. Communities cannot be left to bear the cost of political inaction and administrative incompetence,” said Peter.

“The municipality’s JOC has repeatedly raised alarms regarding the lack of a fuel contract, yet these warnings appear to have gone unheeded. This raises serious concerns about governance discipline, responsiveness and whether the safety of residents is being treated with the urgency it demands.”

Leadership vacuum

At the heart of this crisis, Peter said, was the leadership vacuum that stemmed from the continued failure to appoint an acting city manager.

“[This] has paralysed administrative functions, while the CFO, duly appointed by council, remains unable to execute his responsibilities because his acting appointment letter has not been signed by Mayor Babalwa Lobishe. This inaction has directly contributed to the absence of a fuel contract, bringing essential services to a standstill and exposing residents to avoidable risk.”

This comes just days after President Cyril Ramaphosa commended Lobishe’s leadership during a visit to the city on Monday.

The leadership of Nelson Mandela Bay appeared before the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) parliamentary committee on Wednesday to account for a range of governance issues, where officials were questioned extensively.

Marina van Zyl, a DA MP and member of the committee, said she would write to Cogta Minister Velenkosini Hlabisa requesting intervention into issues that may point to fraud within the municipality.

This follows testimony from CFO Jackson Ngcelwane, who told MPs that documents and circulars were being distributed under his name as “acting city manager” without his knowledge or consent.

Ngcelwane revealed to the committee that a staff member had been issuing these circulars using the unauthorised title. Furthermore, he noted that a job advertisement had been signed for publication by a “municipal manager”, despite the metro currently having no one legally appointed to the post. DM