No portfolio meetings, no reports, no accountability has opposition concerned
There is a real danger that the metro's departments cannot be held accountable during the months they did not submit their reports on the portfolio committee meetings. Meetings were postponed or cancelled and no reports were submitted, say the DA and Freedom Front Plus.
Nine portfolio committee meetings did not run in Tshwane recently.
Tshwane DA chief whip Ofentse Madzebatela said this is a cause for grave concern because “the residents of Tshwane deserve better than the collapse of oversight structures”.
He said the Rules and Orders By-Laws prescribe the frequency of Section 79 portfolio committee meetings and stipulate that a councillor must attend all meetings of a municipal council and the committees of which that councillor is a member.
The speaker of the Council must ensure that these meetings take place and hold those who do not attend them to account.
“The new administration, constituted on October 18, gave their undertaking to residents that they themselves, and employees of the city would be held to the highest standards of accountability, and that service delivery would continue uninterrupted, but this has not proved true. Less than a month later, they have dismally fallen short of their promises,” said Madzebatela.
He said he was concerned that portfolio committee meetings were no longer taking place.
He said 14 committee meetings were either postponed or cancelled in November alone.
“Postponed oversight meetings are a sign of a legislature that is not following the letter of the law,” he said.
A spokesperson for the office of the Speaker, Vanessa Da Sousa told Rekord that nine portfolio committee meetings were indeed cancelled and five were postponed.
“The Community and Social Development Portfolio successfully held their meeting on Tuesday, November 19,” she said, adding that on November 7, one [ordinary] meeting had to be cancelled because of a special council meeting.
“Although the committee was cancelled, the Speaker of Council Mncedi Ndzwanana together with all the Section 79 chairpersons conducted two oversight visits immediately after the Council meeting concluded. These oversight visits were conducted at the City Hall and the Wonderboom Airport,” said Da Sousa.
She said the reason for cancellations or postponements is because the new chairpersons were appointed on October 31 during the Ordinary Council meeting.
“These chairpersons did not feel comfortable to continue with the scheduled meetings until they were inducted and fully equipped with all the necessary information and resources that would allow them to perform their duties fully,” said Da Sousa.
According to the procedure, any chairperson who wishes to cancel or postpone a meeting must seek permission from the Speaker.
The Speaker is the custodian of oversight and carries the responsibility to ensure that oversight is done correctly and effectively.
“It is against this backdrop that the Speaker hosted a full-day induction on November 15. In this meeting, he reiterated the importance of oversight in the City and allowed the top management in the office of the Speaker to make presentations that would ensure that all chairpersons were ready and fully equipped to continue with their oversight roles and responsibilities,” said Da Sousa.
A former Chair of Chairs Sakkie du Plooy of the Freedom Front Plus called on the Speaker to get his house in order and that the portfolio committee chairs with experience should have been appointed instead.
He said oversight structures are crumbling and this can have a serious effect on the administration of the metro.
“The portfolio committees hold the metro departments to account for their work as these departments must submit a monthly report to the portfolio committees. They also have the responsibility to make sure departments know what is expected of them, that they do what they have undertaken in their year plan and that they comply with legislation,” he said.
“If there is no oversight and no call to action to submit reports on their work to portfolio committees, departments and municipal staff can do exactly as they want.”
He said these reports, once passed by the committees with recommendations, are passed on to council meetings.
“But now for October, November, December and January, there will be no reports. How can the Council know what the metro staff is doing if there are no reports passed?” asked Du Plooy.
He added that portfolio meetings are the structure which councillors can use to demand staff brief them on issues of concern.
He said since the Vote of No Confidence in former mayor Cilliers Brink on September 26 to the end of January 2025, portfolio committee meetings would have been held for four months meaning that departments would have been unaccountable for that long.
“The reports have dried up,” he said. “I can but only imagine what could have gone wrong in all these departments.”
He blames the Speaker, whom he said “did not call for the reports as he should according to his responsibilities”.
“This is extremely damaging to the metro. The onus remains with the Speaker. He will have to explain to the residents why there was no oversight for months,” said Du Plooy.
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