EDITOR – In the SUN last November, I pointed out that ward committees are a farce, citing reasons given in the Local Government Bulletin Vol. 10, numbers one and two.
The report carried in the SUN of 17 February concerning ward committees simply confirms my original contention.
At great cost to the taxpayer, ward committee elections were held over the weekend of 20 November. In more than 40 wards chaos ensued and re-runs were scheduled. Controversy was widespread as to how lists of prospective committee members were compiled. Compounding the farce was the fact that the vast majority of ratepayers deservedly ignored the whole exercise. On the Bluff just 158 people participated out of 18,000 eligible voters.
Now we are told that before ward committee members can assume their onerous task of advising ward councillors, they have to submit to probity checks as to their standing in terms of indebtedness, affiliation to a government department, being of sound mind and not having a criminal record since 1997.
If ever there was a case of putting the cart before the horse, this is it. It beggars belief that probity checks are run only after an election. In any normal society, one has to prove eligibility in terms of probity before one submits oneself as a candidate. So, assuming certain of those ‘elected’ ward committee members are found wanting, it is unlikely that a fresh election will occur. Instead, compounding the disingenuous nature of the exercise, the co-opted route will be used.
What is equally nauseating is that the Bluff’s elected councillor seemingly sees nothing untoward about this whole farce. As I remarked at the time, it is disappointing that the DA, which claims to be frugal about the public purse, goes along with this nonsense which is budgeted to cost eThekwini ratepayers R13-million a year.
DUNCAN DU BOIS
