‘This meeting is illegal’: Tshwane speaker adjourns sitting to vote on his own removal

The City of Tshwane’s current speaker will remain in office after Monday’s brief council sitting was declared illegal.

The Tshwane council was expected to vote on a motion of no confidence against the speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana on Monday afternoon.

‘Minimum requirements’

The council sitting was called by the city manager, Johann Mettler after Ndzwanana, according to the Democratic Alliance (DA)-led multi-party coalition, refused to allow a vote on the motion.

Mettler convened the meeting in line with a provision in the Municipal Structures Act, which empowers the city manager to convene a meeting in the event that a majority of councillors sign a petition calling for it.

Ndzwanana was accused by the coalition of unlawfully adjourning last Wednesday’s council sitting in which a new mayor was set to be elected.

The coalition was also dismayed by the speaker’s move to declined their request to call for a meeting last Friday, despite the parties submitting a motion signed by majority of councillors.

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At least 108 councillors had to be in support of calling the sitting for the request to be accepted.

In a twist of events on Monday, it was revealed that the DA and its coalition partners allegedly submitted a petition to call for the council sitting with questionable signatures.

“I would like to put it on record that my office received a petition on Friday, 24 March, at 6.30pm outside of normal working hours. I did not fail nor refuse to call this meeting. This morning… I noticed that close to 10 signatures did not meet the signatories that my office [has in the] records.

“I am of the view that the petition does not meet the minimum requirements as set out in the relevant legislation and that means this meeting is illegal and all that was in it has fallen out,” the speaker told councillors in the Tshwane House.

Ndzwanana, who was elected as speaker on 14 March, decided to adjourned the meeting.

Mayor election

The Tshwane council will, however, return on Tuesday to elect a new executive mayor.

The city has failed to elect a new mayor on two occasions since the 10 March resignation of Congress of the People (Cope) member, Dr Murunwa Makwarela, due to brewing tensions among the political parties in council.

This has delayed the passing of the adjustment budget, which determines how much more residents will pay for water, electricity, sewage and waste removal, after having missed the first deadline of 28 February.

READ MORE: City of Tshwane granted more time to sort out its budget after mayor mess

The metropolitan municipality has since been granted a second extension until 14 April, to pass the budget to avoid the risk of being placed under administration.

“Initially, the city’s application for an extension was granted until Friday, 24 March. However, when it became apparent that the deadline would not be met, the city wrote again to the provincial Treasury to request another extension,” City of Tshwane spokesperson Selby Bokaba said in a statement on Sunday.