Nyakallo Tefu
The City of Tshwane metro council meeting scheduled to take place Tuesday has been called off.
The DA’s regional spokesperson Abel Tau said the council failed to constitute quorum after the ANC and EFF failed to attend the meeting.
“The EFF and ANC members did not attend the meeting. This is why we could not continue,” said Tau.
The DA went ahead with planning the meeting on Tuesday despite being placed under administration.
The party planned to elect a new mayor and outline the city’s budget.
Last week, Gauteng Premier David Makhura and Cooperative Governance MEC Lebogang Maile announced that the city council will be dissolved and placed under administration.
This decision comes during a time when the Economic Freedom Fighters and ANC have been attempting to remove the DA’s office bearers through a motion of no confidence.
However, the DA is not taking Makhura’s decision lying down.
The party has written a letter to Makhura demanding a list of reasons for placing the city under administration.
In the letter, the DA’s lawyers have also asked for Makhura to confirm whether the decision of the intervention was made under the terms of section 139(1)(c) of the Constitution.
DA provincial chairperson Mike Moriarty said the decision by Makhura and Maile seems to be aimed at rewarding the EFF and the ANC for having repeatedly collapsed council meetings by walking out of sittings.
The metro has been without a mayor for a while after Stevens Mokgalapa stepped down.
The DA has since announced Randall Williams as their preferred candidate for the vacant post.
“This is a deliberate strategy, driven intentionally by the ANC because what they want to do is portray the council as dysfunctional and unable to operate,” said the party’s interim leader, John Steenhuisen.
“We are prepared to go to a council meeting and we have a programme of action, which we have set out for the next 18 months into the local government elections, which we believe we will see a significant turnaround.”
