‘Political infighting’ hampering service delivery says DA

The DA says the speaker of council in Ekurhuleni “failed” to call a council meeting in time to pass vital items that play a central role in setting out council work for the new year, thus impeding service delivery.

These items include the metro’s council calendar, which, according to DA chief whip in Ekurhuleni Michael Waters, serves as a foundation, guiding all council-related proceedings and formalising council work for the year.

Waters told this publication that usually the items in question are dealt with at least during the November council meeting. However, the November meeting collapsed after a brawl between EFF and the DA councillors.

According to Waters, the speaker, the EFF’s Nthabiseng Tshivhenga, promised to call a special meeting to deal with these vital items last month, but nothing has happened.

He added that it’s now January 2024, and the speaker has not even announced a date for the meeting to deal with the outstanding items.

Waters believes the delay in calling the meeting is because of apparent political infighting within the EFF/ANC People’s Government.

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“Instead, councillors are called to ad-hoc meetings to discuss matters because the EFF/ANC coalition government does not care about the millions of residents and the continuous collapse of the city.

“As the DA, we have written to the council speaker demanding an urgent extraordinary council meeting is called to pass the council calendar so that councillors and city officials can get on with the business of the day – which should be service delivery and looking after residents.

“This festive season showcased the utter collapse of services across the city, with many residents and businesses left helpless without running water or electricity as the city seemingly ‘shut down’.

“The DA will not allow the EFF and the ANC to hold communities, the city and councillors hostage.

“The so-called peoples’ government has allowed council to collapse through its inability to call meetings, allowing EFF councillors to beat and assault fellow councillors and collapse meetings while the DA fights against corruption and cadre deployment.

“As the DA, we have laid criminal charges against the EFF councillors who violently assaulted DA councillors, and have also requested an investigation through the Ethics and Integrity Committee. We cannot stand idle while beacons of democracy erode away.”

The DA threatened to escalate the matter to the MEC and minister of COGTA should the EFF not heed the DA’s call for an extraordinary council meeting so members can get on with council business for all residents.

“We cannot allow service delivery to be paralysed while the infighting between the EFF and the ANC continues.”

The speaker’s office has not yet responded to our request for comment. The story will be updated once a response is received.

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