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WATCH: ‘I was badly beaten,’ says Mzwandile Masina after being removed from council
Masina says he will open a case against the mayor and speaker.
The Ekurhuleni state of the city address debate descended into chaos on Thursday evening, resulting in former mayor Mzwandile Masina being forcefully removed from the chambers.
While the state of the city address went well on Wednesday, the debate collapsed after Speaker Raymond Dlamini and Masina clashed over questions which had apparently been sent to the mayor but never received responses.
Masina claimed the questions never even reached the right people, and accused Dlamini of forcing members of council to lie about receiving the questions.
But Dlamini said the mayor had responded to the questions.
In videos that have been circulating on social media, Masina can be seen been dragged out of council as other councillors accuse each other of assault.
While some on social media claimed Masina was dragged out after threatening an EFF councillor, Masina said there was no truth to the claims.
“I didn’t threaten to assault any EFF member. There was no need to call the bouncers. There was no ANC member who attacked any member of the opposition. We never threw any water bottles. They couldn’t tolerate our ideas, they resorted to violence,” he told Newzroom Afrika.
“I was beaten as a person, as a father of children and a public representative. I was beaten up for no reason by those officers.”
Masina said he would open a case against the mayor and the speaker, who will have to identify the people who dragged him out of council like a “hooligan”.
“I was badly beaten. I am ashamed that as a public representative I can be manhandled like that.”
Dlamini, however, accused the ANC of coming to the debate with intentions to collapse the proceedings.
He said the questions sent by the ANC had been responded to and were on the Ekurhuleni site.
“ANC members think they are entitled to everything. They walk in council and think it’s only their ideas that will take the city forward. They were distracting the business of the day.”
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Ekurhuleni mayor Tania Campbell also condemned the ANC councillors’ behaviour in council, accusing them of delaying the council’s debate “numerous times” through threatening behaviour.
“Their behaviour deteriorated to such an extent that the Ekurhuleni Metropolitan Police Department had to be summoned to secure the OR Tambo precinct and ensure the safety of non-ANC councillors,” said Campbell in a statement.
“In his rambling speech, Masina failed to make a single constructive criticism germane to the needs of the residents and ratepayers of the City of Ekurhuleni. The ANC’s actions also had the effect of delaying the tabling of the Draft Budget, which crucially needed to be done to allow for public participation on it to commerce.
“The ANC is clearly frustrated and devoid of ideas on how to gain traction among an electorate that it is increasingly rejecting them, and in a city where our multi-party coalition just delivered a highly successful maiden state of the city yesterday, during which not a single protest took place.”
