The KwaDukuza council started 2023 on the wrong foot, cancelling its first official meeting after failing to reach a quorum.
The special council meeting, held virtually on January 16, was the first opportunity for elected councillors to begin their work in the new year.
A workshop on supply chain management (SCM) processes – repeatedly flagged as an issue in internal audits – and amendments to public procurement policies also temporarily fell by the wayside.
“These are urgent and important items to discuss before we meet for our first general council meeting later this month. This aside from the fact that most councillors have had almost a full month without official commitments and that the meeting was virtual,” said Democratic Alliance (DA) caucus leader, Tammy Colley.
It is alleged that municipal officials, including the speaker, mayor and chief whip were also absent from the meeting.
Councillors who logged on waited for around 30 minutes before municipal manager Nhlanhla Mdakane phoned speaker Dolly Govender to query the officials’ absence and whether the meeting would continue.
Part of the speaker’s role is to lead council meetings, which includes receiving and processing leave of absence applications should councillors be unable to attend.
“The municipal manager later informed the many waiting and restless councillors in attendance that the speaker had cancelled the meeting. No explanation was provided, which left many councillors frustrated because of the callous treatment and inconvenience caused,” said ActionSA caucus leader, Nel Sewraj.
KwaDukuza municipality spokesperson, Sipho Mkhize, confirmed that the meeting was cancelled because a quorum (50%+1 councillors) could not be reached.
He said that it was not the first time where quorum could not to be achieved in virtual meetings, and that when the councillors cite their reasons you find it was circumstances beyond their control, sometimes as a result of poor network connectivity or owing to a lack of electricity.
When asked whether leave of absence applications had been received for the dozens of absent councillors, Mkhize said because council did not officially sit, these would only be processed at the next meeting, rescheduled to Thursday.
According to South African Local Government Association rules, councillors need to submit a leave of absence in writing to the speaker before the meeting has begun.
Mkhize denied that anything sinister had transpired.
“Communities must ask themselves if they believe the ANC is taking them seriously. While we sit with rolling blackouts, crumbling infrastructure and declining services, ANC councillors do not even bother to attend meetings,” said Colley.
The DA wrote to the speaker’s office requesting a new date for the meeting, while calling the cancellation a “precarious precedent”.
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