The ANC coalition in Nelson Mandela Bay is battling over the spoils of war.
The coalition made up of the ANC, the EFF and the Northern Alliance removed DA mayor Retief Odendaal last week.
The EFF is gunning for influential MMC positions like finance MMC and infrastructure MCC, which tend to get a lion's share of the budget and are responsible for various infrastructure rollout programmes.
Meanwhile, new mayor Gary van Niekerk of the Northern Alliance failed to show up for his own press conference where he was supposed to announce his new mayoral committee.
Van Niekerk had promised to quickly assemble his committee and hit the ground running with a promise to fight crime in the townships and improve service delivery in Port Elizabeth's northern suburbs.
The ANC has already secured the position of council speaker with the election of Eugene Johnson, the former ANC mayor who was ousted by Odendaal 10 months ago.
In the makeup of the mayoral committee, the alliance partners are fighting over the position of deputy mayor which the ANC wants.
Disagreements over the sharing of the spoils after electoral victory has seen the ANC/EFF coalition in Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni unable to agree on who should be the mayors of these cities.
This contention has resulted in token mayors being elected to run the council with the ANC playing puppet master in the background.
Van Niekerk said Gqeberha needs a load shedding strategy to save businesses and jobs.
"We need to work hard towards the implementation of alternatives to soften the blow of the rolling blackouts. Industry struggles to meet production targets and we are facing a dark winter if Eskom's latest statements are anything to go by.
"Load shedding mitigation measures will feature high on the agenda," he said in his acceptance speech.
The Nelson Mandela Bay Metro is under pressure to implement a fair creation of jobs and tender opportunities for black, white and coloured communities that make up the population of the diverse city.
Photo source: Twitter/@NMandelaBaymuni
