Trollip was removed by the ANC, EFF and UDM as mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay on August 27 through a motion of no confidence.
The DA’s federal executive had announced on the day that Manyati’s membership had immediately ceased following his abstention in the vote of no confidence. The DA representatives then walked out of the meeting as an act of protest. This left the opposition coalition to vote in Bobani as mayor.
Three days after his removal, Trollip and his coalition partners lodged an application seeking urgent review.
Advocate Dali Mpofu represented the opposition coalition in the High Court, arguing that the DA made a “miscalculated decision” to leave the council meeting before it had concluded its business of the day.
He said walking out of a meeting is a strategy used popularly across political spaces, but those walking out needed to ensure there was no quorum thereafter. The judge has ordered that the DA and its coalition partners pay the legal costs of the defendants in two matters.
