EFF weighs in on the council brawl
Amid assault charges laid against EFF Councillors following a scuffle in council at the OR Tambo Government Precinct in Germiston last week, the EFF has responded.
A scuffle broke out at the sitting of the City of Ekurhuleni (CoE) ordinary council meeting on November 30, where the EFF reportedly stormed the DA benches and began to push, manhandle and assault DA councillors.
The DA in the CoE has since laid charges of assault against the EFF councillors of the city, following the attack in the Germiston council chambers.
EFF Gauteng media and communications spokesperson Dumisani Baleni said they would respond to the case once a need arises legally.
“The EFF councillors engaged in a protest on that day as a means of holding the DA councillor of Ward 25 Dannie Putte accountable as ‘a racist’. We opened a case against him at the Crystal Park Police Station for his racial mobilisation against the EFF and people of Ekurhuleni in a church service the Sunday before,” he stated.
The party reiterated, “Following our opening of the case and the protest against the DA racist, he was recalled or resigned as a councillor, thus proving correct all the steps taken by the EFF.
“In terms of the case the DA is threatening to open, it confirms all the assertions we made that the DA is unapologetically a racist party ready to go to all lengths to defend racism.”
In response, DA chief whip in Ekurhuleni Mike Waters said the reason they disrupted the council meeting and collapsed it last week had to do with an item on the agenda called the institutional review.
“This deals with the staffing of all departments throughout the entire city. The EFF is unhappy that they are not getting enough positions for their members. Like the ANC, the EFF see the city as an employment agency for their members instead of attending to service delivery issues,” he said.
He said during the meeting the speaker said she was going to reconvene the meeting within seven days.
“Again, if it was based on the issue that the EFF said it was based on, she could have called the meeting the next day or even an hour or so later. They wanted seven days to negotiate with the ANC for more positions for their party. We have just heard there will not be a council meeting this year and the next one will be in January,” Waters said.
He said the ANC and the EFF are still fighting about the institutional review and about the positions that each party is going to get, yet service delivery across the metro collapses.
WATCH: Scuffle breaks out in council between DA and EFF councillors
