KwaDukuza municipal manager slashes monthly council meetings to four per year

The commitment of local councillors to attend general council meetings might soon drop from 12 to four in a year.

This emerged in the KwaDukuza municipality (KDM) council last week, when the item was put forward by municipal manager, Nhlanhla Mdakane.

It was not set as an item unto itself, but rather the change in number of meetings was simply reflected in the schedule for meetings over the next financial year.

Ward 22 councillor, Privi Makhan from the Democratic Alliance (DA), said she thought this was a ploy to get the item passed without proper scrutiny.

“I believe this new format is absolutely incorrect. This has been snuck in rather than giving councillors an opportunity to comment,” she said.

Mdakane said he was simply answering the calls that multiple councillors had made to him to cut the number of meetings.

“Councillors always tell me they are part-time, so this schedule should give them more time to do other work. Only Executive Council (Exco) members are full-time,” he said.

Ward 29 councillor, Sicelinjabulo Cele of the African National Congress (ANC) agreed, saying that the schedule had become too packed for ward councillors to keep up.

“Most of us have ward commitments that we need to keep up with. Next year, we are also going to be losing many councillors in meetings during the elections, so we support this item,” he said.

Currently council sits for a general meeting on the last Thursday of every month, with portfolios meeting separately.

This is the main decision-making time for council which has the ultimate say in municipal matters.

Legislation states that a council only has to meet quarterly, but opposition councillors said this is meant for smaller municipalities where travel might be difficult.

“This month alone we have had two special council meetings and general council and still we are getting tabled items to keep up with demand. Let us not forget that we are elected as councillor first and foremost,” said ActionSA caucus leader, Nel Sewraj.

If the item passes, there is a possibility that a proportional representation councillor who does not sit on any portfolios will collect a councillor’s monthly cheque for four days of in-person work in a year.

These PR councillors should support ward councillors in their communities, but there is little oversight on daily work.

Mdakane was quick to respond, saying that special councils would be called to meet municipal oversight duties as needed.

“It will become a case where council meetings will be called, but only with regards to issues of compliance,” he said.

Per the Remuneration of Public Office Bearers Act, councillors who do not have any other responsibilities earn between R254 000 and R541 000 annually, depending on the municipal grade.

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