Ruling on debate on purchase of CDM mayor’s car

Although an agenda point on Tuesday, the acquisition of a new vehicle for Capricorn District Municipality (CDM) Executive Mayor John Mpe was not debated following a ruling by Speaker of the Council Monica Mohale that the matter will not be deliberated.
This follows the submission of a written report to Mohale by the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on 19 July to have a motion regarding the matter debated at the next council meeting. The motion, moved by EFF caucus leader Oscar Motolla and seconded by the party’s whip, Ronny Malema raised questions about the process followed to procure the vehicle, what happened to the previous vehicle and whether there was a council resolution to authorise the transaction.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) also submitted questions to the Speaker on 29 May regarding the vehicle and DA councillor Androë Botha entered into a heated argument with Mohale when the written reply to the DA’s questions was not contained in the agenda.
Although the item was on the agenda for the meeting without any report to accompany it, African National Congress (ANC) Member of the Mayoral Committee Chuene Malebana proposed that the matter not be debated and relied on the council’s rules of order which stipulates that a notice of motion should be tabled at a council meeting and could then only be debated at a following meeting. Malebana was supported by various other ANC councillors. The EFF argued that there was no valid reason not to debate the matter. Mohale finally ruled that the matter would not be debated and would have to wait for the next council meeting.

Story: BARRY VILJOEN
>>barryv.observer@gmail.com