The City has 120 Councillors, comprising 60 Ward Councillors and 60 Proportional Representative (PR) Councillors, with about 12 political parties represented in council. The ANC and DA are leading with 48 seats. The EFF is seating at 8, while the rest of the political parties are seating at 2 and 1 respectively.
The Executive Mayor governs together with the Speaker, who is the Chairperson of the Metropolitan Council, the Deputy Executive Mayor and a team of Chairpersons of Portfolio Committees within an Executive Mayoral Committee system. Our Executive Mayoral system is combined with a vibrant Ward Participatory System to ensure community participation at grassroots level. Council is headed by the Speaker. The role of a council in local government is that of lawmaker and, as such, it focuses on legislation, participation and oversight. In addition, municipal councils facilitate political discussions and debate in order to assist in planning and decision-making. The Council of the Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality is headed by the Speaker and comprises 120 Councillors, elected through a mixed-member proportional representative system. Altogether 60 of those Councillors were elected through a voting process in the 60 wards that make up Nelson Mandela Bay. The remaining 60 Councillors were selected from party lists, on the basis that the total number of party representatives must be proportional to the number of votes received.
