By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Nelson Mandela Bay council meeting has unseated Eugene Johnson as the mayor in the African National Congress-led coalition.
Her deputy, Buyelwa Mafaya, and council chief whip Wandisile Jikeka were also ousted at the meeting.
The DA (48), Northern Alliance (3), FF+ (2), ACDP (2), DOP (2), AIC (1), AIM (1), PAC (1), UDM (1) and GOOD (1) voted in favour of the motion.
It was rejected by the ANC (48), EFF (8) and PA (2).
This was the third attempt to remove Johnson, who was elected mayor by a one-vote margin over the DA’s Eastern Cape leader, Nqaba Bhanga.
Johnson was elected as mayor on 22 November as part of the coalition government, which is now in tatters.
The opposition had been plotting to remove Johnson, and blamed her for the water crisis in the region.
This, despite the fact that the water situation had been present long before the Johnson-led coalition government took over.
On Wednesday, Johnson’s party, the ANC, and water entity Amatola Water faced a huge backlash after it emerged that a massive water leak, which had been unfixed since November 2021, had lost the metro 1.5 million litres of water a month.
The DA said it discovered the leak at the town’s northern areas during an oversight inspection on Tuesday.
Last week, the party said the municipality had fixed only 18 of the reported 817 leaks – even less than the week before, when only 40 of 1 018 reported leaks were fixed.
Parties expected to be part of a new coalition government are the ACDP, African Independent Congress, Abantu Integrity Movement, DA, FF+, PAC and the UDM.