Chaos reigned over the first Endumeni Council meeting of the year, where the annual report should have been tabled and adopted.
The meeting was advertised in the Courier of January 17, and it is a statutory obligation that this report – a bulky document of several hundred pages – be adopted by Council.
Instead, the meeting went into meltdown with neither issue being discussed; this will probably lead to queries from the Auditor General. As of Friday there was still no sign of the annual report on the official webistie
A strong police presence outside the municipal building on Tuesday signalled that this would be no ordinary meeting.
Mayor Thulani Mahaye welcomed all 12 Councillors and officials to the first Executive Committee (Exco) meeting of 2014, after which Deputy Mayor T Mkhize demanded that all Councillors, who are not members of the Exco, leave the chamber and retire to the public gallery.
The Exco comprises Mayor Mahaye, Deputy Mayor Mkhize and Councillor Anthon Raubenheimer.
“There was a lot of confusion in the previous Council meeting, where councillors who are not members of the Executive were allowed to participate in the executive meetings. I am making a proposal that those councillors must leave,” said Councillor Mkhize. He also mentioned delegated powers that are given to the Executive.
Deputy Mayor Mkhize said this was explained during a workshop conducted by Hennie Jacobs, a former Endumeni Municipal Manager, who is now with the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA).
Null and void
“It was very clear from the workshop that not all decisions taken by the Exco are taken to Council for deliberation,” Deputy Mayor Mkhize added.
The proposal is believed to be linked to a decision in December to rule null and void a September Council meeting that uplifted the suspension of Municipal Manager Thabani Biyela.
The Council is equally divided in their support for Mr Biyela.
Deputy Mayor Mkhize’s proposal to banish the remaining nine Councillors to the public gallery was met with derision by Speaker Sduduzo Mdluli, who laughed out loud.
“The Deputy Mayor has a sense of humour, so I must laugh,” he remarked.
This angered the Deputy Mayor, who called Speaker Mdluli ‘arrogant’.
“I do not have a problem with the Deputy Mayor’s proposal, but he must be guided by principles.”
The meeting then fell into disarray, with shouts of ‘point of order’.
ANC Councillor Smanga Dlamini said ‘we are not here to play games’, and ‘we have been mandated by the ANC Caucus not to sit in the meeting where the Municipal Manager Mr Biyela has been suspended.’ This prompted the IFP’s Councillor Bongiwe Mbatha to comment that, “This is not an ANC banana republic – we don’t want to hear about ANC stories.” She was also upset by the police presence in and outside the municipality.
Withdraw comment
Mayor Mahaye asked Councillor Mbatha to withdraw her comment, which she did.
The DA’s Councillor Anthon Raubenhimer said the December meeting had confirmed that the inquorated meeting in September, where Mr Biyela’s suspension had been uplifted, had been declared null and void by a majority vote.
Therefore they could not recognise Mr Biyela as being the municipal manager.
He added that COGTA supported the view that Mr Biyela remain suspended in a press release published in the Witness on December 21.
Councillor Mbatha claimed that, “Councillors who do not recognise the municipal manager were happy to have him sign their travelling claims.”
She also claimed that there was no quorum for the December meeting.
The three DA Councillors and three ANC Councillors left, leaving the others to continue with the Exco meeting.
They returned for the start of the full Council meeting, which always follows the Exco, but this time it was the other six who did not turn up.
Officials were also not present for the meeting, which could lead to them being charged, Speaker Mdluli said.
For now the Endumeni Council remains in limbo. In December COGTA MEC Dube wrote a letter to the mayor, in which she confirms that the September 2013 meeting was ‘illegal, as there was no quorum when the decision to uplift Mr Biyela’s suspension was taken’.
She also asked for a report within seven days, ‘and in the interim to take steps to rectify the illegality’.
It is not clear if Council has yet replied to MEC Dube.