Metro wants to condone R46 million irregular expenditure on ward committees
The Tshwane metro council has sought to exonerate city leaders in the issue of R47,250,000 that has been paid out to illegally-elected ward committee members.
The Tshwane metro council has sought to exonerate city leaders in the issue of R47,250,000 that has been paid out to illegally-elected ward committee members. This happened in a special council meeting held last Thursday to debate a new proposed bylaw on ward committees.
R.J Kekana of the ANC tabled a motion of amendment on the proposed bylaw, making allowance for the establishment of ward-based consultation forums to replace the now defunct ward committee members.
In his motion he also asked approval that all related expenditure paid out to the illegally elected ward committee members be condoned from the period April 2012 up to November 2014.
This elicited strong reaction from all political parties opposing the ANC and all voting against the motion.
The Constitutional Court invalidated ward committees last month and upheld verdicts by the High Court and Supreme Court of Appeal that they were unlawfully constituted.
Presenting the proposed bylaw, speaker Morakane Mosupyoe-Letsholo read letters sent to her by Democratic Alliance councillors Andre van der Walt and Lex Middelberg, pointing out the legal calamities and pitfalls of the proposed bylaw.
They suggested that the issue of the bylaw be postponed due to an improper public participation process and the fact that notice thereof was not gazetted as required by law.
“The rules on the actual election of ward committee members is not in the bylaw, but in a secret document which will only be distributed to residing officers,” said Middelberg.
“We are most definitely not opposed to the system of ward committee members. All that we want is that they are properly elected according to a bylaw which is legally and constitutionally sound.”
Van der Walt requested the office of the speaker to confirm or deny if payment was made to ex-ward committee members during the month of November, and if so whether public money was used for this.
Speaker Morakane Mosupyoe-Letsholo said she would not reply to unproved allegations.
Van der Walt said such payments would be a transgression and be regarded as irregular expenditure. The mayor and the speaker could be held directly liable for the costs incurred.
“So the question to the Speaker stands: were ward committee members paid in November, or not? No stipend must be paid until a ward committee by-law has been properly passed and fresh ward committees democratically elected in terms of such a by-law,” said Van der Walt.
Middelberg referred to the ANC’s amendment on the bylaw to exonerate the unauthorised expenditure.
“The problem with that is that in terms of the Municipal Finance Act (MFA), the expenditures are irregular. What they basically try to do is to exonerate themselves. The MFA does not allow you to exonerate yourself by adopting an amendment. In terms of the MFA you can never condone irregular expenditure and council cannot take a resolution to condone irregular expenditure,” said Middelberg.
R.J Kekana of the ANC, in proposing an interim structure in place of the defunct ward committee system, said he cannot see how the municipality can do their work without ward committees.
“It is worth noting that this political party (the DA) wants to run government through the court of law and they have failed to convince the people to vote for them. On 26 April 2012 this council approved the report and recognised ward committees as a legitimate body that will assist council in carrying out his duties,” he said.
“It is also important to note although we respect the court’s verdict, they are not in government. We are. We have been mandated by the majority of people to govern and we will do so unashamedly. We seek permission for the establishment of Ward-based consultation forums for approval.”
He asked that all related expenditure be condoned for the period April 2012 up to including November 2014.
Brandon Topham of the DA submitted that the council had been misled by officials.
He proposed that legality of the suggested bylaw be referred to an inter-party work group for fine-tuning and then again be presented in a special council meeting on Wednesday. This suggestion was adopted.
However, when the special work group was to convene to fine-tune the bylaw, councillors were told the matter was postponed to January next year.
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