“Utterly bizarre” is how a judge has described the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s latest feud where councillors have asked the Gqeberha high court to decide who is in charge of the city’s administration.
In fact, judge Glenn Goosen said it would seem as if the metro had decided to sue itself.
Going head to head via an urgent court application are Noxolo Nqwazi, who believes she is the city manager, and Anele Qaba, who is after the acting city manager seat.
Backing Nqwazi is mayor Eugene Johnson, with the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality joined in court proceedings.
Qaba and the council are cited as respondents.
The Northern Alliance’s (NA) Gary van Niekerk, who believes he is still the council speaker, also formed part of the court case.
The big question councillors want answered is who of Qaba and Nqwazi is in charge.
Nqwazi was given the thumbs-up by the ANC to be the new city manager at a chaotic council meeting two weeks ago.
However Qaba, the economic development executive director, was asked to be acting city manager last week during a meeting which the ANC has since described as an informal gathering and not a council meeting.
Nqwazi has now asked the court to suspend the decision that Qaba act as city manager, along with a decision made by councillors that she be suspended and her appointment revoked.
The court heard on Thursday that the battle for the city manager chair had caused chaos, confusion and great uncertainty among the public.
Equally confused are the metro’s employees, as they do not know whose instructions to follow.
Advocate Anwar Albertus SC, for Nqwazi’s camp, said the Independent Municipal and Allied Trade Union had written to the city manager’s office seeking clarity.
The court heard that the metro’s safety and security executive director, Keith Meyer, was also battling to know who to follow, and which instructions to execute.
Touching on whether there was a quorum during the meeting in which Nqwazi was appointed, Albertus said video footage existed, proving that there was.
When Nqwazi was voted in by councillors — most of whom were with the ANC — on March 16, there was allegedly no quorum as several parties and coalition partners had walked out of the meeting.
In court papers, Nqwazi said Qaba was desperate to gain control of the municipality’s administration to either manipulate or halt an ongoing investigation into an alleged dodgy tender with Moximark, trading as SKBC.
The company had acted as a middleman between the municipality and SMMEs.
According to Albertus, the metro could suffer irreparable harm with Qaba, who they allege to be incompetent, at the helm.
Advocate Albert Beyleveld SC, appearing for Qaba’s camp, said in essence the case was one arm of the same government fighting with the other.
He said at the heart of the matter were the decisions taken at a meeting on March 16, versus those taken at another meeting on March 23 when Qaba was voted in as acting city manager, and whether there was a quorum.
Regarding the video footage referred to by Albertus, Beyleveld said they too were in possession of video footage that proved the contrary.
Advocate Nick Mullins SC, on behalf of Van Niekerk, said his client and fellow NA members Stag Mitchell and Bevan Brown remained councillors until such time that the Independent Electoral Commission stated otherwise.
He said the metro not wanting to deal with whether Van Niekerk was a councillor during the times in dispute had a direct bearing on the case.
Before informing the court that he would reserve judgment until Tuesday, Goosen asked counsel what their thoughts were should he decide to order a mediation process between the parties instead.
They were all in agreement that a mediation process could do no harm.
Earlier on Thursday, another urgent court application involving the metro was averted.
Johnson and Nqwazi had been set on dragging Van Niekerk, the NA, the municipal council as an entity and a long list of councillors to court to stop a scheduled council meeting from taking place.
Van Niekerk agreed to call off the meeting, in light of the case that was to be heard in front of Goosen later in the day.
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