Residents of J.B. Marks municipality were enraged after the acting municipal manager (MM) failed to attend a public meeting on Wednesday.
This meeting was organised by the municipal public accounts committee (MPAC). It was an opportunity for the community to engage the committee and the relevant managers on the annual financial report.
The community members felt that, as the accounting officer, the acting MM, Cyril Henry had to be in attendance.
Kelvin Johnson, the member of the mayoral committee(MMC) for finance, explained that the MM could not attend the meeting because he had to go to court. Most of the residents argued that he had known for a long time that he had to go to court and still proceded to arrange the specific time and date for the meeting.
‘It seems like he did it on purpose so as not to face the community. How can I invite you to my wedding but then I don’t show up?’ said Kgotso Sehurutshe from ward 10.
Chris Drift, from ward 17, wanted to know how it is possible that the managers who choose to not attend these public meetings are allowed to get away with it. ‘This is the fifth year that I have been attending these meetings and the MM has not attended one of them. Are the councillors telling me that there is nothing we can do to force them to attend?’ he asked.
Johnson fiercely defended the MM’s absence by arguing that the issue at hand was not to interrogate the MM but to discuss the contents of the report.
Rufane Makousa, the chairperson of MPAC also noted his concern at the MM not being there.
According to him, the municipal finance management act states that the MM must be in attendance.
“I am afraid, if we carry on with this meeting, the same thing that happened last year will happen again. The provincial department will simply reject our report as the MM also failed to attend last years meeting,’ he said.
Teddy Saane from ward 11 wanted to discuss the fruitless, wasteful and irregular expenditure, which has grown to an astronomical amount of close to R300 million.
‘That money could have been used to clean up areas, fix sewage leaks and potholes but it has been wasted, he said.’
A decision was taken to postpone the meeting to a later date that will be announced in due course.
