The possible intervention of Gauteng MEC for human settlements, urban planning and cooperative governance and traditional affairs Lebogang Maile in the affairs of the Joburg council will only make matters worse, says a political analyst.
Expert on leadership and policy Professor Mazwe Majola said Maile’s intervention in council matters had not always yielded good results, but often worsened matters. He was referring to the collapse of the first city council meeting
on Thursday when the opposition, led by the ANC, demanded a secret ballot for the election of the council chair of chairs and committee chairs.
Council speaker Vasco da Gama refused the secret ballot, saying the matter did not warrant it in terms of the rules and the Municipal Structures Act. The Democratic Alliance-led governing coalition had backed a Congress of the People candidate, Colleen Makhubele, as chair. But the pro-secret ballot opposition, comprising the ANC, Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) and a cluster of smaller parties, intended to support the EFF’s Nonhlanhla Radebe for the position.
Her name was yet to be nominated when all hell broke loose over the voting procedure. Maile has demanded an explanation. His powers as MEC allow him to effectively take over a council if it cannot function properly.
Majola was not optimistic about the provincial government’s role in the matter. He hoped it wouldn’t reach a stage
where the provincial government had to intervene because it acted in a biased manner on such matters.
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“They … tend to be impulsive and they don’t do things the right way,” he said.
“They must be impartial, they must be able to mediate to resolve this matter as the provincial government should that be necessary.”
Last year, the provincial government’s decision to dissolve the Tshwane metro council was nullified by the Constitutional Court as unwarranted and unconstitutional. The province felt it was obliged to act because the council had failed to carry out its executive function and deliver services, due to continuous political infighting.
Now it is feared Maile might be looking to dissolve the Joburg City Council. The MEC wrote to Da Gama asking
him for a full report about the collapse of the council meeting, the first since the November local government election. Sipho Masigo, spokesperson for the council, said Maile’s letter was with its legal team.
“The speaker has to respond, latest by Monday,” Masigo said. Majola said South Africa was not yet ready for coalition governments.
“We have leaders who are egoistic, self-serving and, to them, it’s about themselves, not the people. Until they mature, these coalitions will not work,” Majola said.
The ANC would continue to thwart every move initiated by the Democratic Alliance and its partners in government because it does not accept that it is the opposition and therefore must play that role in a dignified manner.
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“We are going to have this chaos for a while because they don’t respect each other when another is in power.
“The ANC always wants to disrupt the other party and be able to come back to power,” Majola said.
African Independent Congress councillor Margaret Arnold, who chaired minority parties’ opposition, said: “We want a secret ballot. Nobody else is to blame but the speaker, he is responsible for this anarchy … it is our democratic right to vote in secret.”
Da Gama adjourned the meeting until Tuesday He condemned the behaviour of ANC and EFF councillors and accused the ANC of being hellbent on bending the rules. Only the speaker, executive mayor and chief whip were voted via secret ballot.
– ericn@citizen.co.za
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