Battle for the Bay: Athol Trollip fights back

Athol Trollip doesn't know when he will return to power as mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, but he is pretty sure he will do so. In the meantime his party, the Democratic Alliance, will sit in the opposition benches of the city – and expose corruption. He believes Mr Mongameli Bobani, the new mayor, has a track record of corruption and his party, the United Democratic Movement has used dodgy money to fight its election battles.

By Donwald Pressly*

Make no bones about it, Athol Trollip is a man on a mission to return his party to power in the Bay – which includes Port Elizabeth, Motherwell, Despatch and Uitenhage. He lost his position as mayor last month after his former coalition partner, Bobani, turned against him. The Economic Freedom Fighters also carried out its threat to "cut the throat of whiteness" and withdrew its tacit support of the DA led coalition which included the ACDP, Cope and a number of small parties.

Trollip believes there is incontrovertible evidence that Bobani is corrupt. He used a company called Milongani Eco Consulting as a front company, charges Trollip. Bobani insisted on paying this company millions of rands for city waste cleaning service. "No sooner had we (the city) transferred R15 million (for waste services), Milongani were paid two million rand on the same day…" Bobani, whose party held two seats in the post August 2016 council became Deputy Mayor under Trollip. But he was also put in political charge of city health services. Milongani, whose owner lives in Limpopo province, got a tender of R20 million altogether.

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