Councillors-elect in the Nelson Mandela Bay (NMB) metro will have to wait a little longer before being sworn-in after the Eastern Cape provincial government moved to halt the inaugural council meeting to elect a mayor and other office bearers.

This also means councillors-elect will be sworn in at a later date, if Cooperative Governance MEC Xolile Nqatha has his way.

In a letter on Tuesday, Nqatha told NMB municipal manager Anele Qaba not to proceed with the meeting due to his stint as acting city manager exceeding the three-month period allowed by law and that his extension was not approved by the council.

"It has come to my knowledge that you were appointed by the council to act as municipal manager for a period of three months which ended on 7 October 2021. It has further come to my knowledge that at the end of your acting period, the executive mayor extended your acting appointment without a council resolution. Your extension by the executive mayor was thus illegal. The appointment of an acting municipal manager is an exclusive power of the municipal council," he said.

Given this, Nqatha said Qaba was not authorised to convene the council meeting, and should it proceed, it would be unlawful.

"You are kindly requested to have the meeting cancelled to avoid any possible challenges to the validity of resolutions of the first council meeting. A person designated by the MEC will call the meeting in the circumstances," he said.

At Wednesday’s inaugural meeting, council decided to reconvene on Monday. The meeting was tense with angry councillors questioning why Xolile waited till Tuesday to inform the councillors. Two sources have told News24 that councillors are in the chamber waiting for direction from the municipal manager.

Another source told News24 that the meeting will be postponed to Monday. Both the ANC and DA secured 48 seats in the metro. The DA only received approximately 2 500 more votes than the ANC, but it was not enough to tip the scales. Smaller parties and the EFF will be vital in forming coalition governments in the metro. The meeting is still ongoing.