Councillors reflect on this year’s Sona

The jamming of cellphone signals, the forced removal of the Economic Freedom Fighters, the use of the South African Police and the mass walkout staged by the Democratic Alliance has been the subject of vociferous debate and analysis.

The Rosebank Killarney Gazette asked local ward councillors to share their views on the event.

Ward 90 councillor Anthony Still said that the first mistake was the instruction to jam cellphone signals. “This was just provocative. Further, while I agree that the EFF were looking to be removed from the Assembly, it was a mistake to use members of the [South Africa Police] to execute this. Parliament has its own officers for this purpose, and they could have been beefed up to do this. The You Tube feeds of the actual removal of the EFF were alarming and much more brutal than anything shown on TV. This is why the DA walked out – the Speaker refused to identify where they came from but she must have known as this was anticipated and planned,” he said.

Still added he hoped the president will address questions related to Nkandla on 11 March as promised.

Ward 117 councillor Tim Truluck said, “Although I don’t agree with the EFF tactics, I do agree with what they are trying to achieve, namely, to hold the president accountable for the R264-million Nkandla spend. I also don’t agree with the way the ANC are riding roughshod over the opposition by using their parliamentary majority to silence opposition voices and control the parliamentary policies to suit their own purposes.”

DA member of parliament for the Sandton-Alex constituency and Shadow Minister for Labour, Ian Ollis, had first-hand experience of the incident and reflected on it through a letter to the editor.

Click here to read Ian Ollis’s letter.

The Rosebank Killarney Gazette also contacted ANC proportional representation councillor Joy Coplan, who declined to comment.