The Patriotic Alliance wants speaker Gary van Niekerk to appear before the rules and ethics committee for the alleged misuse of Nelson Mandela Bay municipal vehicles.
The party filed a notice of intention for a motion of exigency to be debated at the next council meeting.
The motion was filed through the speaker’s office and will be debated at a council sitting scheduled for Tuesday.
Van Niekerk’s use of two municipal vehicles are in contention.
According to the notice, stamped by the speaker’s office, Van Niekerk was in possession of a municipal vehicle in 2022 at the time his seat had been declared vacant in the council by city manager Noxolo Nqwazi.
Van Niekerk is leader of the Northern Alliance. The seats of two other members of the party — Bevan Brown and Stag Mitchell — were also declared vacant.
The three had been expelled from the party by a rival faction during an informal meeting in Cleary Park in December 2021.
However, Van Niekerk and the others took the matter to Gqeberha’s high court to have Nqwazi’s letter to the Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) set aside.
In June 2022, the court ordered the three to be reinstated.
On Monday, Van Niekerk promised to respond the latest allegations.
However, he had not replied to questions sent to him on WhatsApp at the time of publication.
Northern Alliance secretary-general Vasu Padayachy could not be reached for comment.
The notice of exigency, signed by PA councillor Bradley Murray, alleges that Van Niekerk continued to use a vehicle for his personal gain while the vacancies had been declared.
He was allegedly seen in the northern areas using a vehicle and transporting others and attempts by officials to retrieve the vehicle were unsuccessful, the notice says.
“After numerous attempts from the safety and security directorate to get hold of the vehicle, a sting operation was put in place on July 18 2022 and the vehicle was retrieved at a flat in St George’s Park.
“This is a total of just under four months of [alleged] unlawful use of municipal vehicle.
In January this year, another vehicle was made available to transport Van Niekerk, a black VW Tiguan.
“It has now surfaced that the authorised driver for the vehicle had been on leave and [Van Niekerk allegedly] unlawfully authorised [a] political appointee to be his driver.
“It must be noted that the no political appointee is authorised by safety and security to drive any municipal vehicle.”
The motion states that in the absence of the political appointee, Van Niekerk drove himself and was seen recently with his father at cricket matches played in the city.
“These [instances of alleged] unlawful use of municipal vehicles by politicians must be addressed in the harshest possible way in accordance with the law, the motion reads.
“We call upon the speaker to be bought to book to answer [for] his [alleged] unlawful abuse of power with immediate effect.
“The councillors demanded that he be referred to the rules and ethics committee for a disciplinary hearing to determine what cost the municipality incurred and to establish if a municipal petrol card was used.”
The motion further requests that the findings and recommendations be shared with the council and co-operative governance MEC Zolile Williams.
Murray, when contacted, said the PA filed the notice to highlight alleged wrongdoings of politicians.
“We handed over the motion for it to be raised and heard [on Tuesday]. We can’t let things slide.”
He said Van Niekerk was still using the vehicle and it had been damaged.
“These things need to be raised, and yes they may protect him because they are protecting the coalition but residents of the Bay need to know what is happening.
“Even if we don’t have the numbers we will raise the matter,” he said.
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