DA boycotts Joburg council as new chief whip, chair of chairs elected

While a new chief whip and a chair of chairs were elected during a Johannesburg council sitting on Friday, the DA boycotted the meeting, accusing the elections of being unlawful.

In a statement on Friday, DA caucus leader in Johannesburg Funzela Ngobeni noted a special council meeting had been called by speaker Nonceba Molwele.

However, he did not refer to Molwele as the speaker but rather as an ordinary councillor because the DA said her appointment was illegitimate.

“From the council notice, it is clear that the intention is to replace the DA chief whip and chair of chairs who were evicted at a previous unlawful meeting,” Ngobeni said.

“As such, the DA councillors will not be attending today’s meeting as we are of the view that it is equally unlawful to elect replacements to replace those who were evicted unlawfully.

“Molwele is an illegitimate speaker who was elected in an illegal meeting after Gauteng Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Lebogang Maile illegally instructed the city manager to convene the council.”

According to the rules, Ngobeni said, opposition parties should nominate their candidates for chief whip and chair of chairs at the next scheduled ordinary council meeting on 27 February.

“The ANC is once again ignoring council rules by allowing an illegitimate speaker to convene an illegal meeting in the City of Johannesburg.”

In a statement on Friday, Molwele announced the election of the chief whip, chair of chairs as well as the appointments of several other councillors who would chair different committees in Johannesburg.

She said these appointments would accelerate service delivery.

“Service delivery has to move faster now because we have elected and filled all vacant positions. The legislature is key to service delivery.

“The executive puts in place priorities and implements them; the legislature on the other hand plays an important part of oversight through the chairpersons of section 79 committees.

“It is these chairpersons who have to ensure that service delivery happens.”

Molwele said the new leadership appointments comprised different political parties in the council, namely the ANC, ACDP, AIC and Al Jama-ah. The elections were also nominated and elected unopposed.

Solly Mogase was elected as the chief whip, while Salkphina Mulaudzi was named the new chair of chairs.

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