Durban - Opposition councillors in the eThekwini Municipality joined forces on Tuesday and rejected an attempt by the ANC-led council to postpone a crucial meeting of the executive committee – the second one in two weeks.
On Tuesday, an hour before an executive committee meeting (Exco) was to start, members of the Exco were informed via SMS that the meeting would be postponed until 4pm.
The reason given was that President Jacob Zuma was touring the Toyota plant in Prospecton, which required the “presence of eThekwini (leadership)”.
Last week’s Exco meeting was postponed for a week because there were not enough members for a quorum.
The Exco meetings are crucial service delivery sittings that approve municipal contracts and spending.
Members of the opposition that sit on Exco, the DA, IFP and NFP, were livid that the meeting was postponed at the last minute, and jointly wrote to the mayor’s office, saying they would not attend the meeting at 4pm, as they all had other engagements.
A statement signed by DA councillors Zwakele Mncwango and Heinz de Boer, the IFP’s Mdu Nkosi and the NFP’s Bongiwe Mtshali said the postponement was not only a sign of continuing disrespect by the ANC to the committee, but also to the public.
“We believe the ongoing postponement of meetings has led to a lack of meaningful debate and discussion on some of the city’s top issues.
“Additionally, there are a number of critically important outstanding issues that have, for months, not been addressed.
“This latest postponement is a clear indication the ANC internal divisions, coupled with an organisational attitude that the party is more important than the people it serves, will have an effect on service delivery.”
Speaking to the Daily News, Mncwango said last month’s full council meeting was cancelled as the president was to hold a prayer day in the city, while executive committee meetings had been postponed.
“The ANC thinks that they are the only ones who are busy. We all have full schedules and when they postpone meetings, we have to cancel our other engagements. It is not fair and not right that they postpone these very important meetings,” he said.
Nkosi agreed, saying that he had set up other meetings and was not prepared to cancel those to accommodate the ANC’s bad planning.
Mtshali said the postponement of the Exco meetings was “unprofessional”.
“They should have known that the president would be in Durban a long time ago, and should have prepared for it. Postponing these Exco meetings does not only undermine us as councillors, but the people of eThekwini whom we represent. These meetings are important, we monitor service delivery,” she said.
eThekwini Speaker, Logie Naidoo, an ANC member of Exco, agreed with opposition councillors that were not told earlier about the postponement, but said they only found out that the president would be at Toyota late on Monday night.
“We agree that postponements are disruptive and it affects all our diaries. However, it cannot be that when the head of state is in the city, the mayor is sitting at an Exco meeting.
“The president was at Toyota where they were showcasing all their achievements. Toyota is one of the biggest employers in the city and the deputy mayor had to attend,” he said.
Naidoo added the Exco meeting had, since the opposition objected to it being held late on Tuesday, been deferred until Monday.