AGE OF ACCOUNTABILITY: DA asks court to make Nelson Mandela Bay mayor pay for R25m transformer lease

Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Babalwa Lobishe and former acting city manager Ted Pillay could be held personally liable for costs arising from the controversial leasing of a R25m municipal asset to a private company if the DA succeeds in its court bid.

With the sheriff of the court already knocking on Nelson Mandela Bay Mayor Babalwa Lobishe’s door, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the metro hopes the high court in Gqeberha will rule in its favour and hold the mayor and former acting city manager Ted Pillay personally liable for their hand in leasing a R25-million asset to a private company.

Speaking outside City Hall on Thursday, 8 October 2026 — just 26 days before the 4 November local government elections — DA mayoral hopeful Retief Odendaal said the party had applied to the court for an order compelling the City to “recover unlawful expenditure under the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA) from Lobishe and Ted Pillay in their personal capacities”.

The latest court action comes as Lobishe faces a separate legal headache at home , where the Sheriff is armed with a writ that could see her movable assets attached and potentially auctioned to recover R82,970.88 in legal costs owed to People’s Power leader Siyanda Mayana.

The DA’s application relates to the controversial lease of a 132/kV, 63 MVA municipal transformer, valued at about R25-million, to private company Coega Steels in August 2025.

Pillay, who was one of the City’s acting city managers at the time, and Lobishe signed off on the lease of a transformer that had been at the Sonop substation since 2018, after Coega Steels turned to the municipality on 21 August 2025 for help when its own transformer failed on 14 August 2025 , putting about 600 jobs at the steel manufacturer at risk.

After the transformer broke, the company was losing R700,000 a day, according to a report to the mayoral committee by former acting executive director for electricity and energy Tholi Biyela.

On 22 August, Pillay responded to Coega Steels, saying that it would lease the transformer. The rental agreed was R250,000 a month for 12 months.

Lobishe, even though the City’s Budget and Treasury directorate raised several concerns over the lease of the transformer, gave it the green light between 4 and 8 September 2025. By 11 September 2025, the lease of the transformer had been finalised.

However, at a council meeting in October 2025, when Lobishe brought the issue of the transformer to council, DA metro council leader Rano Kayser pointed out that the lease was recorded on a document that looked as if it was “bought at PNA or Clicks”, with handwritten annotations, Daily Maverick has reported.

It was also at this council meeting that it was decided that the transformer lease matter should be taken on judicial review , in a bid to have the agreement set aside.

“So we know that the handpicking of a company was irregular and therefore all of the expenditure relating to that contract will be irregular.

“Then you must also remember that there will be hundreds of thousands of rands in wasteful expenditure.