This was stated by Mr Billy Madungandaba, the spokesperson for the CoJ legislature, in reference to comments made against the speaker recently by the Democratic Alliance (DA).
Clr Victor Penning, a Kensington resident, said the DA caucus walked out of the city’s budget debate after the speaker “ruled the operational and capital budgets should be debated and voted upon prior to the debate on the portfolios which make up the entire budget”.
“The DA said it made no sense to approve the total budget and then discuss the components which make up the budget.
“When the speaker correctly explained she had the right to change the sequence of the items to be debated in terms of the Standing Rules of Council, the DA agreed but repeated that in this case the debate and decision on the total budget before its components being debated made no sense,” said Clr Penning.
He said the DA debated and supported the capital budget and then voted against the operational budget because of the above inflation tariff increases on some services. “A further reason was because the revenue expected to be collected to support the budget would probably not be achieved, based on the current year’s track record,” said Clr Penning.
The DA then left the chamber in protest.
Clr Penning said, “The speaker displayed blatant political bias when she refused the DA an opportunity to explain why it had decided to leave the chamber, yet later allowed other parties and councillors to extensively debate the issue after the DA had left,” he said.
Mr Billy Madungandaba said, “The speaker of council, Clr Bapela, would like to put it on record that at no stage did she refuse all parties represented in council time to debate on motion and items as presented to council by the executive mayor. As the presiding officer she is bound by the Rules of Council to allow for free speech subject to the rules. In this case a DA councillor wanted to speak without being called to do so. Rule 68 states that a councillor may address council only when called or noted by the presiding officer which was not the case in this instance.”
He added that rule 62 (3) (b) allows the speaker to decide the order of council agenda.
He said despite the walkout from council, council business continued because there were enough quorums. “The council speaker will continue to enforce all Council Standing Orders as agreed by all parties represented in council without prejudice,” said Mr Madungandaba.
@JoziReporter
