View All Blogs Register Login
Hot Spots

Nal'ibali
Nal'ibali
News from Port Elizabeth
News from Port Elizabeth
News from Jeffreys Bay
News from Jeffreys Bay
News from Port Alfred
News from Port Alfred
La Femme
La Femme
Job Zone
Job Zone
Business Directory
Business Directory

Power struggle sees mayor locked in
14 August 2012

Zandile Mbabela

THE power struggles in Nelson Mandela Bay burst to the fore yesterday when mayor Zanoxolo Wayile, speaker Maria Hermans and chief whip Feziwe Sibeko were locked inside the ANC regional headquarters by regional leaders and ordered to resign with immediate effect.

The order was also directed at Wayile’s deputy, Nancy Sihlwayi, who was not at the meeting as she is on a visit to Sweden’s Göteborg municipality.

During the fortnightly political management meeting with ANC national disciplinary committee head Derek Hanekom at Florence Matomela House, there was chaos as members of the ANC regional executive committee chained and padlocked the doors, restricting access in and out of the building.

While some residents who went there about ANC-related issues were turned away and told to come back today, branch members aligned to regional chairman Nceba Faku were let in.

ANC members sang and chanted outside the boardroom where the meeting took place, forcing it to be moved to the City Hall as they got rowdier.

Faku-aligned members sang from the third floor boardroom, while another group aligned to Wayile formed outside after their branches were alerted to the standoff.

While talks of a hostage situation were dismissed as an exaggeration, ward councillors and branch members aligned to Wayile had to use a bolt cutter to cut open the regional office’s security gate to let Wayile walk free yesterday afternoon.

This after police - who had been alerted to a hostage situation - were booted out of the offices after they cut through the chains and padlocks to gain entry to the third floor boardroom.

An REC member, who was at the meeting but did not want to be named, said they had wanted Hanekom to enforce "a resolution [passed] at the regional conference [in St Albans in April] for the mayor, deputy mayor, speaker and chief whip to step down”.

"The ANC regional conference is the highest decision-making body in the region and a decision was taken for them to go,” he said. "We’ve been observing over the past three months since the conference and have decided to act on that today.

"Wayile was meant to walk out of the building as the former mayor.”

Motherwell ward 55 resident and Wayile supporter Mbulelo Taaibos said he had received a text message notifying him of the situation unfolding at regional headquarters.

"We were told that Faku and [ANC councillor Thembinkosi] Mafana ordered Wayile to resign and said he could not leave until he had resigned,” he said.

"We then rushed there from a meeting we were having in Motherwell to find this mess.”

The mayor’s spokesman, Luncedo Njezula, declined to comment on "speculation” that the mayor had been forced to resign, saying no such decision was communicated to the mayor’s office.


Add your comment

To comment on this article please login or register

Your comments

alvonhumb [14 August 2012 14:10]
ANC National Disciplinary Committee Head, Hanekom was there? Faku again at the center of undermining our City and Hanekom stands by, apparently? Suggestion for the Disciplinary Head - pull your finger out and pressurise on the impmentation and action on the Kabuso report. Faku must face up to his actions as erstwhile mayor. The longer national ANC avoids facing this, the greater the chaos will be in our Province. Corruption must be eliminated.
- Report Abuse

royboy [14 August 2012 11:45]
Mayor locked in,this is the actions one would expect of a schoolboy prank,yet our supposed LEADERS carry on without any form of embarresment at this infantile behaviour,and yet we vote them in,what a joke!
- Report Abuse

Recent Articles

Shamwari leopard reunited with Ivorian rescuer after 13 years

TWO long-lost friends - a leopard and an Ivorian man - were reunited at the Shamwari Game Reserve yesterday after being separated for 13 years.

Gift of smile for 38 East Cape kids

THIS week 38 Eastern Cape children with facial abnormalities will receive free surgery to put the smiles back on their faces - thanks to the Smile Foundation.

Another attack at festering Arlington

ANOTHER knife attack has occurred at Arlington Waste Disposal Site. The attack, which took place on Saturday afternoon, comes amid calls by the DA for an investigation into the chaotic state of the site and questionable swopping of contractors.

Cause and effect of climate change explained

SO HOW to communicate the complexity and magnitude of climate change to youngsters from a little school in Zwide? The kids, in grades six and seven at Mzimhlophe Primary School, were given the answer to this question during their visit to the SA Marine Rehabilitation and Education Centre (Samrec) yesterday (August 03 2011).

R1.5-million farming venture will fit Eastern Cape to a tea

THE Eastern Cape government has set aside R1.5-million to kick-start an expanded honeybush tea industry that could be ramped up to produce a turnover of R100-million a year and hundreds of new jobs. The good news follows on the results that have emerged from a study of the honeybush industry, commissioned by the Coega Development Corporation (CDC) on behalf of the provincial economic development and environmental affairs department.

Algoa Bay the best monitored in all of Africa

ALGOA Bay is now “the best monitored bay in Africa” with millions of rands worth of equipment installed below the surface measuring a wide range of environmental conditions. That was the proud revelation yesterday (July 28 2011) from SA Environmental Observation Network (Saeon) co-ordinator Shaun Deyzel, who was speaking at a marine science symposium hosted by SA National Parks, at the Addo Elephant National Parks.

Surf event sets greening benchmark

BILLABONG Pro J-Bay is setting a benchmark for international surfing contests with a comprehensive programme to protect the local environment and combat global climate change.

Unique source of Bay water

HOW many cities in the world can say they get their water from a World Heritage Site? Very few, I bet. Yet, that’s the case with Port Elizabeth and the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality and in fact the Gamtoos River Valley vege farmers.

Bayworld raggies returned to the ocean

THE biggest baddest pair from Bayworld’s de-commissioned aquarium, two bulky raggedtooth sharks, were released yesterday (July 26 2011) back into the sea. It was a sad day for the oceanarium, where they have lived for nearly two decades, inspiring awe in hundreds of thousands of visitors - but it is good news for the species, as the pair are now part of a research project aimed at securing our waters as one of the few safe havens in the world for raggies.

Unique study of great whites

A UNIQUE study into the abundance, distribution and movement of great white sharks in Algoa Bay, sponsored by the metro, has been launched. There has never been a fatal shark attack in Algoa Bay, but the metro has committed the R800000 grant as a pro-active step, taken in line with their marketing of Port Elizabeth as “the watersports’ capital of Africa”, researcher Dr Matt Dicken explained yesterday (June 21 2011).

Co-op sponsors two farmers on US mission

TWO Karoo farmers have flown out of PE on a ground-breaking mission to the US, to get the low-down on fracking, in the country where it all began.

Link Refit to electric cars proposal

IF WE CAN link Refit with electrical motorcars - then we could really be onto something. Speaking to The Herald yesterday (June 14 2011), department of environmental affairs deputy-director general for climate change, Peter Lukey, said the scheduled launch this month of South Africa’s Renewable Energy Feed-In Tariff (Refit), will likely lead to significant positive change.

Exciting reforestation project underway in Transkei

AN UNUSUAL re-forestation and carbon sequestration project is underway in the heart of the old Transkei, where savage erosion is a common feature. The R7600000 project is being run as a partnership between the Congress of Traditional Leaders’ of South Africa (Contralesa), the national department of environmental affairs and a Johannesburg-based company called Carbon Worx.

EC investment boost to counter climate change

EASTERN Cape economic environment MEC Mcebisi Jonas yesterday announced significant new green economy investment to boost green economy skills in the province.

Branch recalls fascinating career

FOR world-renowned reptile and amphibian expert Dr Bill Branch, who retired this week from Bayworld after 32 years employment there - it all began in 1969, on the shores of a lake in East Africa.

Green electricity programme set to launch this month

GOVERNMENT will this month launch the long-awaited Refit programme that will make funding available to pay private energy entrepreneurs who will generate their own green electricity and sell it to the grid.

EC leads climate change battle

THE Eastern Cape government has declared its intention to lead from the front in the war against climate change, with a landmark multi-benefit project agreement signed at the Eastern Cape Climate Change Conference in East London yesterday (June 08 2011).

Get out the Karoo, farmers tell Shell

ANGRY residents of the Middleburg area have called for Shell to “get out the Karoo” after the company failed to guarantee the security of their water if fracking goes ahead. Addressing Shell representatives at a hall in Middelburg’s Grootfontein Agricultural College in a hall packed with farmers in T-shirts saying “Don’t Frack with our Karoo,” members of the audience asked repeatedly if the multi-national could “guarantee no risk to our water”.

Your Views

Wanie 17 August 2012 3:21 pm

The goverment must surely take all the blame here. No service delivery, increase in food prices, tax payers money disappearing, petrol increases and they think R4000 is a living wage. Blame the goverm...

Wanie 17 August 2012 3:15 pm

The ANC goverment lies so much to the public that they themselves are starting to believe it. Corruption will never stopped while the ANC is in charge, no discipline, very disruptive nature and dont l...

alvonhumb 17 August 2012 12:32 pm

Kiviet - "Provincial Government will lobby to outlaw tenderpreneurs". Keep saying it long enough, someone may actually believe it. At the risk of sounding like a broken record, what is the ANC doing ...

royboy 17 August 2012 12:07 pm

Stadium fraud...I hope the hawks add all the stadiums to their list of investigations,as without a doubt all tenders were corrupted...lets nail these predators...

royboy 17 August 2012 12:03 pm

1 billion in tenders to civil servants families...it is about time the Herald named these thieves so we the public are aware of the hyaenas...it is them who are to blame for the state of affairs we ar...

Bokkie 16 August 2012 11:51 am

Why are we so shocked about kids held for murder? These kids know that they cannot go to jail if they are underage and therefore more and more crimes these days are done from kids. I'm sorry but if ...

TheRef 15 August 2012 6:02 am

Sack the board of SAA?The government should sack themselves incompetent bunch!...

alvonhumb 14 August 2012 2:10 pm

ANC National Disciplinary Committee Head, Hanekom was there? Faku again at the center of undermining our City and Hanekom stands by, apparently? Suggestion for the Disciplinary Head - pull your finger...

royboy 14 August 2012 11:47 am

...no budget left for road to be completed...rather spend on overseas trips and Afcon soccer...far more important...

royboy 14 August 2012 11:45 am

Mayor locked in,this is the actions one would expect of a schoolboy prank,yet our supposed LEADERS carry on without any form of embarresment at this infantile behaviour,and yet we vote them in,what a ...