Mayoral inauguration “vulgar,” says DA youngster
A full house passed a motion by DA councillor Gys Romijn at Tuesday’s ordinary sitting, condemning striking municipal employees for intimidating the public and co-workers.
Cllr Romijn tabled motion 128 in relation to “the tsunami of unwillingness to render services”.
The motion called for the municipality to “do everything in its power to stop the dismantling and destruction of infrastructure by enforcing and enhancing all labour laws”.
The matter came up for debate at Tuesday’s sitting with a unanimous vote to pass the motion.
Opening the floor, Cllr Romijn withdrew the word ‘tsunami’ without mincing his words on municipal employees who dishonour their public service.
“Our residents are being overburdened with heavy taxes, job losses, high poverty rates, and many other social issues, and to put the cherry on the cake, we have to bear the brunt of angry and dissatisfied employees. This is simply not right,” Cllr Romijn said.
“To damage municipal property and stop people from entering and leaving municipal buildings, is an infringement on residents’ rights,” he added.
Cllr Romijn says residents of the municipality deserve better, “Our employees earn decent salaries and are on par, even better off, than many employees of other institutions.”
Cllr Romijn says that millions of fellow South Africans would work for less than what municipal employees earn, just for an opportunity at a job.
The motion passed unanimously, with the EFF’s Zandile Ngubeni at first wanting to protest, but ultimately supporting the motion with, “Yes, just let it pass.”
• Fellow DA Councillor Deon van der Merwe, formally withdrew his motion for debate on the mayoral inauguration on Friday.
Motion 129 called for a stop to the inauguration at Themba Senamela Stadium.
Cllr Van der Merwe argued that Mayor Mhlonishwa Masilela was duly inaugurated at the first special council in November last year, following local government elections.
Cllr Van der Merwe moved that the money to be spent on the inauguration, instead be used for studies on the implementation of alternative energy generation within the municipality.
The motion was, however, withdrawn on the basis that expenditure had already occurred in the planning of the event.
Cllr Van der Merwe, however, concluded the formal withdrawal by labelling the inaugurations as “vulgar” in light of the economic downturn and job losses caused by Covid-19.
