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Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Retief Odendaal.
- The DA approached the court with regard to the possible removal of the mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay.
- A special council meeting was scheduled to take place on Monday to hear a possible motion of no confidence in Retief Odendaal.
- The meeting was, however, cancelled.
The DA approached the Eastern Cape High Court in a last-minute attempt to save its fragile coalition in Nelson Mandela Bay as its mayor, Retief Odendaal, survived the threat of a motion of no confidence.
A special meeting called for Monday was expected to debate Odendaal's future, but it was cancelled at the 11th hour.
Odendaal has, for weeks, faced a threat of a motion of no confidence - which his party, the DA, has labelled as frivolous.
According to the DA, no signed motion was submitted to the council, to call for Odendaal's removal.
After days of stating that a special meeting would sit on 8 May [Monday] to debate the motion of no confidence, the Speaker of the Nelson Mandela Bay council, Gary van Niekerk, cancelled the meeting.
READ | DA's Retief Odendaal elected mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay after marathon council session
Van Niekerk was under pressure as the DA and Odendaal had filed a court application at the Eastern Cape High Court in Gqeberha, to have the meeting interdicted.
The DA's court application also sought to deal with any talk of a debate about removing the mayor.
Because Van Niekerk cancelled Monday's council meeting, the DA and Odendaal's legal arguments on postponing the sitting were moot - but the court challenge will go ahead later this week.
The DA wants the court to rule on the unlawfulness of Van Niekerk, allowing the 'illegal' motion of no confidence to be debated.
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In the court application, Odendaal and the DA argue that a proper motion should have been submitted, according to the council's rules.
There was a list of signatures petitioning that a meeting be called, but a political party or councillor submitted no valid and agreed-upon motion, Odendaal said.
"The applicants seek to review and set aside the decision of the Speaker to allow any motion of no confidence to be placed before the council. Council rules constrain the Speaker.
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The rules require that a motion be signed and dated by a councillor. The rules apply no matter how the meeting is convened, whether a regular meeting, special meeting requested by the Speaker or the majority of councillors," the DA said in court papers.
"No motion can lawfully serve before the council on 8 May. No motion has been signed by any councillor. The signatures supporting the request for a meeting to be convened cannot be construed as signatures for the motion."
The DA's Andrew Whitfield told News24 the court matter was necessary because the party believed Odendaal was facing "frivolous" threats for his removal from office.
The matter will be argued in court later this week.
Van Niekerk is member of the Northern Alliance political bloc and it's believed his appetite to entertain the request to remove Odendaal may be a sign that he has switched his political support from the DA to the ANC.
Nelson Mandela Bay has been a fragile political football field for years since the ANC lost the majority after the 2016 local government elections.
The metro's future was even bleaker in 2021 as the ANC and the DA could not get majorities for outright governance.
Odendaal was elected in September last year after the DA managed to cobble a large coalition of political parties to remove the former mayor, Eugene Johnson, from office.
Johnson is an ANC councillor and was elected after the 2021 elections.
The electoral seat allocation is mainly divided between the ANC and the DA, with both parties having 48 seats each.
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