Motions draw laughter, anger over racial profiling

EFF Whip Zandile Ngubeni was visibly displeased by Speaker Thomas Mpye’s decision to quash fellow councillor Maredi Mapheto’s motion relating to the renaming of “streets that are representatives of apartheid and offensive (sic)”.

The motion fell flat due to its seconder being absent from the council sitting due to car trouble.
Cllr Ngubeni tried in vain to second the motion but was denied.

The party’s second motion followed suit, with Cllr Priscillah Malinga’s request for the formalisation of all informal settlements being rejected for not being seconded.

The following two motions, relating to social grant recipients’ automatic placement on the municipality’s indigent list for free water, electricity and sanitation, as well as the “insourcing” of municipal security, cleaners and general workers, were also denied before chuckles broke out around the EFF’s fifth attempt for the “removal of statures that are representative of apartheid and offensive (sic)”.

Both the DA and ANC mocked Cllr Johanna Mthombeni, asking her to please explain what an “apartheid stature” was.
Cllr Gys Romijn drew a parallel to statues, arguing, “There’s none.”

Chuckles around the “stature” peccadillo, however, died down instantaneously when the MHRF’s Jomo Segage pointed to the removed “Transvaal” signage at the local post office, with prompts to “sit down” from fellow opposition benches.

The Voortrekker memorial at Van Blerk Square was targeted next, with Cllr Romijn arguing that the memorial was erected long before the dawn of apartheid, just to be reminded of the Voortrekker’s colonialist origin.

The DA’s Palesa Mobango lectured the EFF on their target audience, telling them to take their racial rhetoric to the street corners, “While searching for statues that don’t exist, the EFF will discover hunger, poverty, and unemployment, the real problems this council should address,” Cllr Mobango said.

Hopeful that the council would agree to the establishment of a municipality-owned construction company to provide housing and other municipal services, Cllr

Thabiso Tshoane also drew laughter when he suggested the municipality could even compromise on construction quality to sway support for the motion.

It was denied by Speaker Thomas Mpye, who declared the request “uneconomical”.