THE DA in Ekurhuleni staged its first walk-out in the new term of office at the latest Ekurhuleni Council meeting in Germiston.
Clr Ghaleb Cachalia, leader of the DA caucus in Ekurhuleni, led his councillors out of the meeting following an in-committee debate on the report about the appointment of members of the selection panel tasked to adjudicate the selection process for the position of municipal manager.
The previous city manager, Khaya Ngema, resigned shortly after the local government elections in August. His resignation came after the DA and IRASA were for a long time advocating for his departure from the city manager’s seat.
The DA accused Ngema of, among other things, irregular expenditure of public money and his alleged illegal employment.
Cachalia said, in a statement released after the latest council meeting, the Speaker of Council, Clr Patricia Kumalo, flouted her own ruling to close the doors of the council chamber during the in-committee debate and subsequent vote by allowing ANC members to re-enter the chamber after the doors were locked.
“Clr Kumalo’s refusal to eject the ANC councillors, in line with her own ruling, placed the office of the Speaker in disrepute and threatened to jeopardise the integrity of the voting procedure in council. The DA therefore considered it untenable, in view of her continued intransigence, to give credence to the partisan procedures of the Speaker in an important in-committee meeting that was deliberating a matter of considerable public interest and importance,” he added.
He said the selection of the city manager and other top officials by council, has, in the past, been marred by scandal and impropriety.
