Some Councillors Not Happy With Danny Jordaan Appointment


By Oliver Ngwenya    26-May-2015 04:59 UTC+02:00
Nelson Mandela Bay. Boardroom squabbles are the order of the day in the council chambers. Image: Nelson Mandela Bay

Nelson Mandela Bay. Boardroom squabbles are the order of the day in the council chambers.
Image: Nelson Mandela Bay.

It has been revealed that there are voices of dissent within the ruling African National Congress in the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality following the appointment of the current chairman of the South African Football Association (SAFA), Danny Jordaan as the new mayor of the coastal town last week. According to local media, some councillors of the ANC in the city are currently in the process of making machinations to ensure that Jordaan does not get to be appointed to the mayoral position when council sits.

Some papers quoted some councillors as saying that they were not happy with Jordaan because he had been imposed on them by the leadership. As a result, the councillors are threatening that they will vote for the opposition Democratic Alliance candidate to the position of mayor to show their unhappiness with the matter. The media described what it refereed to as a “fight back strategy” in which the members of the ruling party would not attend the meeting that would ensure the official appointment of Jordaan to the headship of the council in the coastal city. The strategy, it was said, was that the councillors, which number about eighteen, would not attend the meeting but would either submit sick notes, send apology notes or just not show up in the chambers. “We only need a minimum of five ward councillors from the ANC…then the meeting will not sit. When they convene another council meeting, we will alternate another group of councillors to stay away,” said an insider.

The announcement of Danny Jordaan as the new mayor of The Nelson Mandela Bay municipality was announced by the Secretary General of the ANC, Gwede Mantashe, on Monday last week as the ruling party struggled to ensure that the municipality was functional and devoid of corruption as was the council that was headed by 83-year-old Benson Fihla. Jordaan is not the only new person to be drafted into the city’s chambers. Bricks Ndoni and Litharge Suka would become the new deputy mayor and chief whip respectively. These are positions which have to be confirmed by a vote, according to Mantashe. If the words of the sources quoted in the papers is anything to go by, it may be difficult for all these people to ascend to their positions.


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