A mass opposition walkout in the KwaDukuza council last week has brought the ongoing Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) chair appointment saga to an uneasy close.
All members of the Democratic Alliance (DA), Independent Alliance (IA), ActionSA, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) stormed out of the special council meeting last Thursday.
This follows controversy over the repeated deferral of the appointment in previous meetings.
The MPAC is one of the most important committees in a municipality, dealing with financial oversight and monitoring municipal spending.
After the most recent deferral in council on March 31, where a vote was held but not counted, all parties agreed that input was needed from a Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) representative to move forward.
It was a disputed solution, but allowed for the meeting to continue.
Opposition councillors therefore expected to have a Cogta representative present last Thursday who would provide clarity on the process and a solution before any further deliberation could happen.
Acting municipal manager, Nhlanhla Mdakane, said that although he had sent a formal request to Cogta, no response had been received.
Nevertheless, the item was present on the agenda, with African National Congress (ANC) councillors pushing for a vote after their coalition agreements with the African Independent Congress (AIC) and African Transformation Movement (ATM) were apparently reestablished.
They nominated ATM councillor Thulile Mkhize for the position.
“In our view, this item has come before us without further consultation from Cogta, and as such should not go ahead,” said DA caucus leader, Tammy Colley.
ActionSA councillor Sipho Zungu, echoed the sentiment.
“I don’t think you understand the seriousness of this item. We are proceeding as though nothing happened and I think it is dangerous to deal frivolously with this item,” he said.
Following these arguments, Colley nominated IA councillor Ebrahim Kolia for the position. The motion was not seconded.
This nomination was later quickly withdrawn after ANC councillors argued that this constituted implicit support of the vote going ahead.
“The item is here now and we have 2 names, I think we need to continue and vote. Let’s do what we need to do. Perhaps some of us are afraid to vote now, but majority rules in this house,” said chief whip, Humphrey Mbatha.
After allowing arguments from both sides of the house for about 10 minutes, speaker Dolly Govender allowed a vote.
This prompted a huge outcry from the opposition, with the meeting set to descend into chaos once again.
“As a member of MPAC, this is not doing justice to us. We feel very depressed that people are stacking this election,” said EFF councillor, Nkosi Mbonambi.
ActionSA caucus leader Nel Sewraj suggested a motion of no confidence in speaker Govender could follow if a vote was allowed.
After a small ruckus, opposition councillors exited, leaving behind the ANC, AIC, ATM and African Christian Democratic Party (ACDP) councillors, 32 out of the 59 in the KwaDukuza council.
The remaining councillors still had a quorum and passed the item, voting in Mkhize as MPAC chair.
Whether this will be allowed to stand in the regular council meeting on April 28 remains to be seen.
