The DA in Ekurhuleni has stated that the metro should be embarrassed that this month’s council meeting, on Thursday, started 45 minutes late, because the microphones were not working.
DA chief whip, André du Plessis, said it does not put trust into the hearts of residents of the metro when even something as simple as a regularly planned meeting is unable to go ahead as scheduled.
“This is not a case of ‘unforeseen circumstances’, as the microphones have been problematic for some months, with several of them not working at all,” said du Plessis.
The DA commended the council for arranging for engineers to come to the council chamber to repair the system.
However, the day before the meeting is too little too late, because it does not allow time for a contingency plan if the problem is bigger than expected – as happened in this instance.
“While the chamber is used from time to time for other meetings, it is largely empty and, once again, bad planning was allowed to prevail and the repairs did not take place during the four weeks since the last council sitting,” du Plessis said.
“It is totally unacceptable that the Speaker, Patricia Kumalo, the mayor, Mondli Gungubele and the executive allowed a young boy, who was saying the prayer at this month’s meeting, to be humiliated by a public announcement system that did not work.”
