EFF opens case against Tshwane mayor and other senior staff members

The EFF opened a case of assault, harassment, victimisation and intimidation against senior Tshwane staff members, including the mayor.

Several EFF councillors, along with their Tshwane regional chairperson, laid charges against council speaker Murunwa Makwarela, community safety MMC Grandi Theunissen and mayor Randall Williams on Tuesday at the Central police station.

They claim their members were unfairly treated when the three called in private security last week Thursday when the metro’s 2022/23 budget was supposed to be delivered.

Tshwane metro spokesperson Sipho Stuurman said EFF councillors behaved aggressively and violently during the special council meeting.

[WATCH] Tshwane Council Speaker, Dr Murunwa Makwarela says no party has the right to disrupt the work of Council and deny residents the opportunity to hear the City’s Budget Speech. @TshwaneSpeaker @CityTshwane pic.twitter.com/qQnJ1FvOKD

— Mayor Cilliers Brink (@tshwane_mayor) May 24, 2022

The EFF’s Obakeng Ramabodu, however, blamed the Speaker for inciting violence against EFF representatives in council during the budget speech, which led to “scuffles”.

Ziyakhala

Makunyiwe Macala ✊✊✊ pic.twitter.com/bY41RAGGse

— EFF Tshwane Region (@TshwaneEff) May 19, 2022

Ramabodu said the actions of the Speaker, mayor and the MMC of Safety on calling armed private security on members in council were “unacceptable”.

“There are rules against such security protocols.”

He said there was a rule which stated that the council needed to start at a scheduled time or before 20 minutes has passed.

“We argued that council had passed 20 minutes and to make things worse, various councillors were barricaded outside due to protest action.

“We also argued that we could not proceed with the sitting of the budget speech as councillors were still absent.”

Ramabodu said the protest action had even led to police shooting rubber bullets at unarmed protesters, yet “Tshwane claims that no one has been injured”. The protesters were protesting against the outsourcing of employees.

Ramabodu said Makwarela, however, decided to proceed with the sitting, despite the EFF’s “valid arguments”.

He said this was when disagreements occurred and security was called in.

Regarding the circulating videos of tables being shifted, Ramabodu said the EFF councillors did not engage in any action of malicious property damage.

“We had to defend ourselves as the DA and Freedom Front Plus councillors wanted to throw our members with a table, so we had to pull the table to defend ourselves.”

Listen:

https://soundcloud.com/thato-mahope/eff-obakeng-ramabodu-talks-on-scuffle?utm_source=clipboard&utm_medium=text&utm_campaign=social_sharing

He alleged that Makwarela was partisan to the actions of the DA and Freedom Front Plus.

Ramabodu said that the Speaker was unfair and that the metro had to be run through the voices of multiple parties, not just certain parties.

The budget speech was eventually postponed to Friday with various coalition government members filing charges of intimidation, disruption and destruction of property in council.

Police spokesperson Captain Augustinah Selepe confirmed a case of common assault, intimidation, victimisation and harassment was opened.

“According to the complainants, the incident occurred on May 19, 2022, during a special council meeting.”

She said police were not at liberty to disclose who the suspects were.

“The investigations are ongoing.”

Selepe also confirmed the DA had opened a subsequent case of common assault and malicious damage to properties.

“We also can not disclose who the suspects are as investigations are ongoing.”

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