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In January 2009, South Africa abolished the controversial floor-crossing system under which members of Parliament, provincial legislatures and local government could change political party – or form a new party – and take their seats with them.
However, it seems the system still exists in the Nelson Mandela Bay Metro.
Mayor Danny Jordaan has silently brought back the contentious practice, after he allegedly instructed the municipality’s payroll division to continue paying salaries of DA councillors who recently defected to the ANC.
A municipality employee anonymously tipped off City Press about an operational meeting that took place last Friday, where the municipal corporate division head allegedly entered into discussions with payroll staff to authorise salary payments to former DA councillors who defected to the ANC – even though they were considered expelled from the DA and subsequently lost their council seats.
The discussion about the payments was allegedly on Jordaan’s instruction, said the employee.
He said the instruction was clear that “money should be allocated” for these payments at a later date.
“But we cannot be part of that transaction. It is illegal to make the payment and we all know that,” complained the official.
“How would we justify the transaction in our records?” he asked.
The former DA councillors include Mzukisi Ncamani, Knight Mali, Bahle Ngqondela, Penny Naidoo, Nico du Plessis, Brian Kivedo and Isaac Adams.
The councillors left the DA and were paraded on June 5 at an event hosted by Jordaan, where ANC deputy secretary Jessie Duarte was a guest.
The event was held at Port Elizabeth’s Helenvale Resource Centre to celebrate winning over 500 DA members and seven councillors to the ANC.
Athol Trollip, the municipality’s DA mayoral candidate, told City Press that these councillors were no longer party members and therefore forfeited their packages.
“It is illegal to make any salary payments to councillors who terminated or resigned and were not even given any positions in the ANC,” said Trollip.
Some of the defectors were not nominated in the DA because of “their failure to meet the party’s selection criteria”, while others resigned because of unhappiness, he said.
“The DA has a strict selection process that involves extensive screening, a series of tests, interviews and performance evaluations to identify representatives,” said Trollip, adding that the process had determined that these councillors could not be returned to stand as DA representatives after the upcoming elections.
Trollip offered the following explanations:
. Proportional representation councillors Ncamani and Ngqondela were terminated from the DA membership list on March 21, and proportional representation councillor Mali resigned on April 17. All three had colluded to join the ANC.
. Du Plessis (Ward 13), Naidoo (Ward 31) and Adams (Ward 11) tendered their resignations after not being returned as DA candidates for their wards ahead of the elections.
. Proportional representation councillors Jan Lindoor and Serina Marlow (Ward 38) terminated their DA memberships at the beginning of June.
Trollip argued that seven of these former councillors went to the ANC following promises of a “pot of gold”. He said proportional representation councillor Kivedo was now “in a lower position” on the ANC list.
Their departure meant that they forfeited their gratuity of three months’ salary, plus two months’ remaining term salaries, which would have been paid to councillors who finished their term.
Trollip said the total amount each defected councillor was supposed to have forfeited was about R150 000. He suspected that there was some form of inducement promised to these former DA members to jump ship by the ANC and, seemingly, “Jordaan is living up to the promises made, through these payments”.
Trollip said that, despite his party’s submissions to top municipal officials – including acting city manager Johann Mettler – about the councillors who were no longer DA representatives, they were allowed to attend council meetings.
“When we protested about their presence in the council meetings, council speaker Maria Hermans told us that ‘they have a right to attend because they are still councillors’, and that their term had not come to an end,” said Trollip.
“We had a fierce battle with the council. Eventually, they were asked to sit in the public gallery during the council meetings. We also made submissions to have locks changed in the offices that they used to occupy, because they [neither] represent the DA nor the ANC.”
Hermans denied any knowledge of the allegations of salary payments to the former councillors.
“I do not know on whose instruction this order was made, because I am busy working on the ground with the ANC secretary-general [Gwede Mantashe] on door-to-door campaigns,” she said.
Hermans added that when a councillor finished their term, a submission for clearance was made to the municipality and, once they returned municipality property, payments were processed.
Trollip said the DA had taken legal action against the municipality because “it was not only illegal, but also fraudulent” to keep councillors on the municipal payroll and council when they were no longer members of that party.
When City Press contacted Mlungisi Ncame, Jordaan’s chief of staff, for comment, he said only Hermans’ office could respond to such allegations.
