The first act of business for Nelson Mandela Bay mayor, only 24 hours after his re-election, was to investigate a possible syndicate, allegedly involved in stealing and selling municipal electricity infrastructure.
DA leader in the Eastern Cape, Nqaba Bhanga, was re-elected as mayor of the metro during a recent special council meeting, where he beat fellow nominee, the EFF’s Amandlagawethu Madaka, by securing 62 votes from the 119 councillors present at the meeting. Madaka bagged 57 votes.
Speaker, Buyelwa Mafaya, called the special council meeting last week after a court order gave her seven days to call the meeting, with the election of a mayor to be the only item on the agenda.
This follows Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) MEC, Xolile Nqatha’s description of Bhanga’s election as mayor during a chaotic and drama-filled council meeting held on December 4 last year, as “tainted with flaws and not in compliance with legislation”.
During the meeting two months ago that lasted more than 11 hours, Mafaya was manhandled and forcefully removed from chambers. The PA’s Marlon Daniels was then elected as acting speaker to continue the process of electing a new mayor.
Bhanga was elected by councillors of the DA, PA, Cope, ACDP, UF and AIC.
According to COGTA, since neither the acting city manager nor an MEC had presided over the election of the acting speaker during that meeting, the election was unlawful. This in turn meant that Daniels’ actions on that day, including presiding over the election of the new mayor, were null and void.
Nqatha subsequently took the matter to court but settled matters outside court earlier last month. As part of the settlement, Bhanga was to remain mayor until the election of a new mayor during the next council meeting, which took place on Thursday.
“You will not believe what we have just seen,” Bhanga said when he addressed the media the day after he was re-elected.
He explained that he had just returned from an oversight inspection at a scrapyard in Kleinskool, where it was discovered that aluminium and copper cables, allegedly belonging to the Makana Local Municipality and some coming from Mthatha, were being sold.
“The worst part is that the owner [of the scrapyard], confirmed that these cables are municipal property. We have a police team on the ground working to verify the legitimacy of this information.
“We have seen pictures of cables from Mthatha being sold by a scrapyard and it seems that all of these come from municipalities across the Eastern Cape,” Bhanga said.
“We have made it clear that the owner is part of a syndicate that operates to sell municipal property on auctions,” he added.
The mayor mentioned that a reward will be announced soon for anyone who comes forward with tangible evidence that could lead to the arrest and prosecution of the culprit(s).
“We are going to arrest somebody.
“This cannot be allowed because it is destroying businesses. Our metro’s electrical infrastructure cannot be broken down like this,” he emphasised.
“We are also going to ask Crime Intelligence to investigate whether this is an internal municipal syndicate or normal crime because it looks very organised.”
According to Bhanga, he will also meet Provincial Police Commissioner, Lieutenant General Liziwe Ntshinga, to discuss cable theft in the metro.
