The community of NW405 will have to wait a little longer for the name of the new municipality because of an impasse between the ANC and the opposition parties.
The speaker of the council will have to convene a special council meeting for further deliberation after councillors could not decide on the new name at Tuesday’s State of the City address. The public has already done their part for public participation and inputs on the new name, with Tlokwe the preferred name, followed by JB Marks. People voted at public ward meetings, via written submissions through drop boxes placed in various municipal buildings and electronically via email and SMS. Following the public participation process, Kgotso Khumalo, the executive mayor, advised the councillors that there should be an auditing process to avoid duplication. ‘Everything should be verified to check if the system was fair,’ said the mayor.
At the meeting, the ANC councillors voted for the name of JB Marks, with opposition parties opting for Tlokwe. However, the DA asked for a brief caucus meeting before walking out of the meeting saying they will no longer be part of the process. The other opposition parties followed suit.
Reasons for the opposition for walking out
Hans-Jurie Moolman, says the response from the public clearly indicated that the majority is in support of the name, Tlokwe.
‘However, this response was not acceptable at yesterday’s meeting and, as a result, the community’s voice is being discarded. That is the reason why the DA walked out of the meeting.
‘The strange part is that public participation has its origin in the liberation struggle in South Africa, where the leaders of the liberation struggle made it part of the decision process to consult before taking decisions.
‘In this instance, I think public participation was the process of consulting and, if the consultation indicates that Tlokwe must be the name, we have a duty to our community to respect that response. The DA also believes that retaining the name Tlokwe will be expedient in the sense that it will be practical and ensure that the money that would have been spent on changing the name can rather be used for other needs in our community that have higher merit than the luxury of the name change,’ said Moolman.
Deadline of new name
The end of June is the deadline for the new name of the municipality. If no consensus is reached before that time, Cogta (the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs) will not fund the name change, according to the mayoral spokesperson, Victor Boqo. Cogta has set aside an amount of R13 million for the new name.