THULANI MUST FALL… asleep?
Surely, the angry protestors from ward 7 brandishing placards demanding that, “THULANI MUST FALL!” did not mean to imply that their ward councillor MUST FALL… asleep.
Estella Naicker
Surely, the angry protestors from ward 7 brandishing placards demanding that, “THULANI MUST FALL!” did not mean to imply that their ward councillor MUST FALL… asleep.
Yet, the Vryheid Herald observed that Thulani Ndlovu, and two other councillors, had dozed off at the previous week’s council meeting.
While the other two councillors appeared to be drifting in an out of sleep at intervals, Cllr Ndlovu remained in the land of Nod for most of the meeting, favouring a seat to the back of the council chambers so as not to be disturbed.
While we like to hope that our public representatives are dreaming of a better future for Vryheid, it seems unlikely that sleeping on a decision at the actual council chambers would facilitate a productive meeting.
Speaker of the council, Mphumzeni Mtshali, denied having seen any councillors sleeping at the council meeting. Cllr Mtshali said he is able to see everyone from where he is seated in the council chambers and would have asked the councillors to stop had he caught them sleeping. He suggested that it was possible that councillors who rested their heads in their hands, or looked down to examine their agendas, may have appeared to have had their eyes closed, even though they were wide awake.
However, Cllr Ndlovu certainly did not appear to have been wide awake when he looked around in surprise, then yawned and stretched, after a colleague tapped him on the shoulder.
Others commented that finding councillors sleeping at the meetings was actually, “typical.”
Ward 7 residents have taken to the streets three times this year to express their unhappiness with poor service delivery, and say they will not be voting in the upcoming local government elections. They have accused Cllr Ndlovu of, “not being concerned with what is happening in his ward,” and said they are, “sick and tired of the AbaQulusi municipality’s empty promises.”
With Cllr Ndlovu asleep at the wheel, it is uncertain who will drive the issues of Ward 7 forward.
Attempts that were made to contact Cllr Ndlovu telephonically, to hear his side of the story, were met with a voicemail recording to which he never responded.
Check out this video of Minister Maite Nkoana Mashabane caught sleeping in Parliament by members of the EFF:
