By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The African Nantional Congress (ANC) on Monday managed to secure a minority government in Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality.
The party’s mayoral candidate, Eugene Johnson, was elected the new executive mayor of the metro during the inaugural council meeting after the local government elections earlier this month.
The ANC retook control of the metro from the Democratic Alliance (DA) with just one vote after Johnson received 60 votes, beating the DA’s mayoral candidate Nqaba Bhanga, who received 59 votes.
The council consists of 120 seats and only one councillor was absent when new councillors were sworn in, after which the speaker and mayor were elected.
The metro’s new speaker is Gary van Niekerk of the Northern Alliance, who beat the DA’s Rano Kayser by one vote. Van Niekerk’s appointment was met with riotous applause, ululation, and singing. Someone, who was apparently injured, even hoisted a crutch into the air.
Van Niekerk received handshakes from fellow councillors and then took to the podium to a throng of applause. He then facilitated the vote for the executive mayor. All 119 councillors present voted.
The metro’s council is split evenly between the ANC and DA, each of which have 48 seats, followed by the EFF with nine seats, the National Assembly with three seats, the ACDP and Freedom Front Plus with two, among other parties.
The inaugural sitting of Nelson Mandela Bay metro’s newly elected council proceeded in an orderly fashion on Monday morning, after failing to launch on Friday.