Accusations of bias and obstruction: Inside the Joburg council chaos

Opposition parties in the City of Johannesburg metro council are considering a legal challenge against the decision to refuse a secret ballot for the election of chair of chairs and portfolio committee chairs.

But council speaker Vasco da Gama is adamant that the opposition parties, who caused a scene and withdrew their candidates in protest of the decision, have no legal leg to stand on as he has not broken any law or precedent.

ALSO READ: ANC blasts DA for ‘tyranny elements’ after ‘withholding’ secret ballot at council meeting

What the rules say

He explained that rules of council did not stipulate how the voting for the section 79 oversight committees and chair of chairs should be conducted, only that one must indicate with a yes or no.

“If it meant that you have a secret ballot to elect chairpersons, it would have said so. It would have stipulated. That is the process we have always followed. It has never changed, for 20 years,” Da Gama told The Citizen.

Violent and chaotic scenes played out in two consecutive council meetings last Friday and this Tuesday, with the ANC also objecting to water not being provided in council and demanding to see the J88 injury forms after claims that some councillors had been injured in the previous scuffle.

When Da Gama refused to budge, the ANC and EFF withdrew their candidates and left the council meeting but the business of council continued and COPE’s Colleen Makhubele was elected unopposed by show of hands.

ALSO READ: EFF and ANC withdraw their candidates from Joburg council meeting

Da Gama ‘biased’

An opposition bloc within the Joburg council – which includes Al Jama-ah, African Independent Congress, United Democratic Movement, Pan Africanist Congress, and the African Peoples Convention – has said that Da Gama is not fit for the position of speaker, accusing him of flouting council rules and being biased.

But Da Gama said the fracas was a combination of a fight-back strategy from the ANC, as well as a collaboration for oversight committee positions.

He said the disruption of council business at the expense of the citizens of Johannesburg was expected, as was the case when the DA took some metros from the ANC in 2016.

“They are playing politics, I have to be neutral… and have not transgressed any law. I have made sure that rules that we always used are used in council without any exception or taking sides. Residents have seen the meetings for what they are, they cannot believe when one loses power this is the kind of reaction that you get. We had the same in 2016, where there were marches, the city was trashed, and we have learnt from that but this means service delivery in the city has taken a step back,” Da Gama said.

ALSO READ: Chaos in Joburg council derails democracy

Citizens the biggest losers

Following the chaos last week, Lebogang Maile, Gauteng MEC for Human Settlements, Urban Planning and Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, demanded a report on the events within seven days, which Da Gama said he had submitted on Tuesday morning.

Speaking for the opposition bloc, the UDM’s Thandi Nontenja said they did not disrupt council business but merely voiced their objections and grievances with the conduct of the speaker.

She agreed that the ultimate victims of the chaos was the citizens of Johannesburg but that they could not fold their arms while Da Gama trampled on democratic principles.

“The least he could have done was to put the matter of the secret ballot to the vote, note impose his decision on us. There was a time when he did not allow us, the minority parties, a chance to caucus until the ANC intervened,” Nontenja charged.

She said they have no other avenue for recourse other than going to court to challenge Da Gama’s decision.

– siphom@citizen.co.za