Can we, as residents, still attend council meetings every month? Will we be able to see and understand what is going on? Should we attend council meetings if we want to be more involved?
Nicole van Dyk, Ward 99 councillor answers:
Yes, the public can attend council sittings and absolutely should attend when they can.
However, members of the public who want to attend a council meeting must pre-book with the speaker’s office.
Council sittings are much longer nowadays due to the number of parties represented in council, as well as the nature of coalition and partnership agreements. All who want to have their say about items on the agenda generally use all the time allocated for their speeches.
It’s generally better if one attends the afternoon sitting, as the morning sessions do take some to get started. It would be great to meet with your local councillor first and seek guidance on when important matters may arise.
It’s also good to attend, as council is the legislative arm of local government and this why engagement is so highly important, it’s why we, as councillors, always attend and participate in the full sitting.
Every councillor sits on what is called Section 79 committees where we perform oversight duties that are reported and debated within the chamber. This ensures better performance from the entities and the Executive as the budget and spending are assessed across the city.
The most notable sittings are generally the budget debate and the State of the City and are very interesting to attend – these are in the month of May.
There are, however, some portions of a council sitting where visitors in the gallery will be excused. These portions are called ‘in committee’ and are matters that require high levels of discretion, such as cases of corruption or maladministration that need to be sent to the ethics committee at the approval council.
From there the matter will only be made public once the ethics committee has reached a final decision pertaining to the case.
I am looking forward to seeing far more residents attending future council sittings.
Do you have a question for a ward councillor?
As a local newspaper, the Randburg Sun provides a platform for residents to learn about, understand and follow local government.
As an extension of that, there is a weekly column called Councillor’s Corner which is a platform for you, our readers, to voice your concerns or questions for ward councillors to respond to.
Different, willing, ward councillors will respond to a question each week.
Email your burning question to aimeed@caxton.co.za and let’s get the ball rolling.
