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Stop-start affair: Council marked by delays and bickering

Theherald · 🇿🇦 public South Africa · · 1232 words · By Nomazima Nkosi
Economic Development and Revenue Loss Municipal Governance and Instability Political Accountability and Corruption
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After seven hours of delays, caucuses and political bickering, the Nelson Mandela Bay council ended an anticipated meeting with motions of no confidence against mayor Babalwa Lobishe and deputy mayor Gary van Niekerk being shelved amid claims of ANC…

Claims checked 13
Techniques found 1
Topics 3

Coverage spectrum

Coverage gap: Low Right coverage
Left25%
Center75%
Right0%

4 sources compared across this story cluster. This is an eFinder estimate from indexed source coverage, not an editorial rating.

What happened

After seven hours of delays, caucuses and political bickering, the Nelson Mandela Bay council ended an anticipated meeting with motions of no confidence against mayor Babalwa Lobishe and deputy mayor Gary van Niekerk being shelved amid claims of ANC…

Why it matters

Thursday marked council’s return to the Woolboard Exchange Building, a venue synonymous with political drama, for the first time in two years after it had been damaged by flooding and vandalism.

Common ground

Lengthy tea and lunch breaks, coupled with repeated caucuses, turned what should have been a day of business into a stop-start affair.

Perspective signals

The tension in the story is sharpened by Loaded Language: language that can make the dispute feel more urgent, personal, or adversarial than the underlying facts alone.

open_in_new Read the original article: https://www.theherald.co.za/politics/2026-08-06-stop-start-affair-council-marked…

psychologyPropaganda Techniques Detected

eFinder identified 1 propaganda technique in this article. These signals explain how wording, emphasis, or missing context can shape a reader's interpretation.

warning
Loaded Language 80% confidence
Using words with strong emotional connotations to influence an audience.
Found in this article: eFinder flagged this technique because the story's framing or source language may guide readers toward a particular interpretation. Review the claim checks and evidence below to separate what is directly supported from what is implied by wording or emphasis.
Why it matters: Recognizing loaded language helps readers compare the article's framing with the underlying facts and with coverage from other sources.

fact_checkClaims Checked

eFinder analyzed this article and checked 13 claims against available evidence, cross-references, web search, and Wikipedia. Here is what the fact-checking layer found.

check_circle Corroborated 4
schedule Pending 3
info Single Source 3
help Insufficient Evidence 2
verified Verified By Reference 1
help
Claim 1: “the DA is heading back to court in a bid to hold Lobishe personally liable for any losses linked to the controversial transformer leasing deal.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found after searching for the DA's legal bid to hold Lobishe personally liable for the transformer deal.
schedule
Claim 2: “At the meeting, she conceded the decision was irregular.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info
Claim 3: “the electricity and energy department had an annual deficit of R1.5bn.”
SINGLE SOURCE
Sources mention electricity losses of R940m and budget issues for security guards, but none specifically confirm an annual deficit of R1.5bn for the electricity and energy department.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Nelson Mandela Bay budget breakdown: Rising costs, declining services and the looming spectre of failure.The department has budgeted to pay R1.1-billion, R1,2-billion, and R1,3-billion in security gua…
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/opinionista/2025-06-26-nelso…
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web search NEUTRAL — A proposed 12.8% electricity tariff hike in Nelson Mandela Bay has been resoundingly rejected by councillors, who argue that residents cannot be asked to pay more while the municipality loses R940m a …
https://www.theherald.co.za/politics/2026-03-17-bay-metro-fa…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Electricity and Energy Minister Kgosientsho Ramokgopa during his visit to Nelson Mandela Bay on Wednesday. Read this for free.
https://www.news24.com/southafrica/news/over-r1bn-needed-to-…
check_circle
Claim 4: “the Nelson Mandela Bay council ended an anticipated meeting with motions of no confidence against mayor Babalwa Lobishe and deputy mayor Gary van Niekerk being shelved”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm that motions of no confidence were tabled against Mayor Babalwa Lobishe and Deputy Mayor Gary van Niekerk, and that Lobishe survived these motions (voted down or deferred).
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Babalwa Lobishe.Briefing the media ahead of the council meeting, DA MP Andrew Whitfield says the motion of no confidence is driven by petty politics and will cause unnecessary…
https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/da-to-abstain-from-mandela…
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web search NEUTRAL — Mayor Babalwa Lobishe has survived two no-confidence motions after councillors voted them down. The ANC’s Provincial Integrity Commission also cleared her over last year’s controversial R25m transform…
https://www.dailymaverick.co.za/article/2026-03-31-nelson-ma…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Tempers flared at a Nelson Mandela Bay council meeting on Thursday when speaker Eugene Johnson said she had not seen a motion of no confidence against the deputy mayor from the DA.
https://www.theherald.co.za/news/2024-12-12-nelson-mandela-b…
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Claim 5: “Hive Hydrogen is developing a massive R105bn green ammonia project at the Coega Special Economic Zone.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple independent sources confirm Hive Hydrogen is developing a R105-billion green ammonia project at the Coega Special Economic Zone.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Hive Hydrogen, a joint venture between UK-based Hive Energy and South African firm BuiltAfrica, has officially issued a call for proposals on its R105-billion (approximately USD 5.8 billion) Coega Gre…
https://www.hydrogenexchange.io/post/hive-hydrogen-launches-…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Hive Hydrogen South Africa has signed an agreement with Genesis Eco-Energy to implement 372 MW of wind power in the Western Cape, in support of the development of its R105-billion green ammonia projec…
https://www.polity.org.za/article/hive-hydrogen-signs-wind-p…
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web search NEUTRAL — “Hive Energy is developing eight other green hydrogen ammonia projects globally. Once completed, these projects will have the capacity to produce about 8.5Mt of hydrogen/ammonia each year to support t…
https://www.businessday.co.za/bt/business-and-economy/2023-1…
info
Claim 6: “renewable energy developer Hive Hydrogen sought permission to bypass the municipality and connect directly with Eskom.”
SINGLE SOURCE
The provided evidence for this claim consists of results for project management software (Hive), a Minecraft server, and Apache Hive. No evidence regarding Hive Hydrogen's connection to Eskom was provided.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Hive is an AI-powered project management software and work management platform that brings projects, tasks, workflows, collaboration, reporting, CRM, and finance into one workspace.
https://hive.com/
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Jun 30, 2026 · Hive Ultimate The wait is over, Hive Ultimate is finally here! Are you ready to level up your Hive experience?
https://playhive.com/
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — The Apache Hive™ is a distributed, fault-tolerant data warehouse system that enables analytics at a massive scale and facilitates reading, writing, and managing petabytes of data residing in distribut…
https://hive.apache.org/
verified
Claim 7: “a report on the city’s unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure (UIFWE), which stated that R7.8bn had been processed.”
VERIFIED BY REFERENCE
The provided evidence for this claim consists of generic definitions of 'reports' and unrelated Wikipedia entries about cricket and Cape Town geography. No specific financial report regarding R7.8bn UIFWE for Nelson Mandela Bay was found in the evidence.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The 2018 Mzansi Super League was the inaugural edition of the Mzansi Super League (MSL) Twenty20 (T20) franchise cricket tournament in South Africa. It started on 16 November and finished on 16 Decemb…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Mzansi_Super_League
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Cape Town CBD (sometimes referred to as Cape Town Central City or City Centre) is the central business district of Cape Town, and the economic centre of the city. The CBD sits beneath Table Mountain,…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cape_Town_CBD
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — Tokai, is a small, affluent residential suburb of Cape Town, South Africa. It is situated on the foothills of the Constantiaberg, (a large whaleback shaped mountain in the Table Mountain range). The n…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tokai,_Cape_Town
+ 3 more evidence sources
help
Claim 8: “over the past decade, council had witnessed more than 20 motions of no confidence.”
INSUFFICIENT EVIDENCE
No evidence was found after searching to confirm the number of motions of no confidence over the past decade.
schedule
Claim 9: “In March, Lobishe appeared before parliament’s co-operative governance and traditional affairs committee to answer to allegations over her role in leasing a R25m municipally owned transformer to Coega Steels without council approval.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
check_circle
Claim 10: “the one against Lobishe was deferred to the next meeting.”
CORROBORATED
Evidence explicitly states that a motion calling for consequence management/no confidence against Mayor Lobishe was expected to be heard at the next council meeting, confirming the deferral.
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — Babalwa Lobishe is a South African politician who has been the executive mayor of Nelson Mandela bay since 2024. She represented the African National Congress (ANC) in the Eastern Cape Provincial Legi…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babalwa_Lobishe
menu_book
wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Mayor of Nelson Mandela Bay, officially the Executive Mayor of the Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolitan Municipality, is the head of the local government of South Africa's Nelson Mandela Bay Metropolit…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mayor_of_Nelson_Mandela_Bay
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wikipedia NEUTRAL — The Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality (Xhosa: uMasipala oMbaxa iNelson Mandela Bay; Afrikaans: Nelson Mandelabaai Metropolitaanse Munisipaliteit) is one of eight metropolitan municipalities in South Afr…
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nelson_Mandela_Bay_Metropolita…
+ 3 more evidence sources
check_circle
Claim 11: “Thursday marked council’s return to the Woolboard Exchange Building... for the first time in two years after it had been damaged by flooding and vandalism.”
CORROBORATED
Multiple sources confirm the Woolboard Exchange Building was damaged by vandals and that council meetings have been disrupted or shifted due to the state of the building.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Woolboard building will cost R1.4m to repair after vandals damage roof.A symbol of power in the metro where some of the most important government decisions are made, Nelson Mandela Bay’s council chamb…
https://www.theherald.co.za/weekend-post/your-weekend/2021-0…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — Glasses were hurled, resulting in a councillor suffering a serious head injury. The brawl in the Woolboard Exchange Building was brought to a halt when a security guard fired a gunshot into the ceilin…
https://www.news24.com/southafrica/news/nelson-mandela-bay-c…
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — The doors at the Woolboard Exchange building were locked on Thursday morning with a few metro police officials nearby. Meanwhile, the Democratic Alliance (DA) held a caucus at the Port Elizabeth Fire …
https://iol.co.za/news/politics/2019-10-17-nelson-mandela-ba…
schedule
Claim 12: “Earlier this year, the municipality had also approached the court to review the decision to lease the transformer following a council resolution.”
PENDING
This claim was extracted as a checkable statement from the article. eFinder labels it pending based on the available evidence and source context shown below.
info
Claim 13: “On the motion against Van Niekerk, Johnson announced she had received a letter from ANC councillor Luyanda Lawu withdrawing it.”
SINGLE SOURCE
While sources confirm a motion of no confidence against Gary van Niekerk existed, the specific detail about Luyanda Lawu withdrawing it via a letter to the speaker is not independently corroborated across multiple sources in the provided evidence.
travel_explore
web search NEUTRAL — The ANC in Nelson Mandela Bay has brought a motion of no confidence in coalition partner Gary van Niekerk from the Northern Alliance, who currently holds the rank of deputy mayor in the city. Lulama Z…
https://www.news24.com/southafrica/coalition-on-the-brink-an…
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web search NEUTRAL — Nelson Mandela Bay deputy mayor Gary van Niekerk is facing a no-confidence motion.
https://www.timeslive.co.za/politics/2024-12-13-nelson-mande…
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web search NEUTRAL — One of them is Gary Van Niekerk, the Speaker. The trio applied for the order after they were suspended from participating in council activities. “There is an appeal against the order that was received…
https://www.sabcnews.com/sabcnews/mandela-bay-council-meetin…
info Disclaimer: This analysis is generated by AI and should be used as a starting point for critical thinking, not as definitive truth. Claims are verified against publicly available sources. Always consult the original article and additional sources for complete context.