The DA yesterday walked out of Sol Plaatje’s Special Council Meeting for the second time in two weeks, after the Municipal Manager refused to redo the swearing in of Martha Bartlett and Dipuo Peters despite acknowledging, on record, that last week’s meeting was nullified – the nullified meeting was one at which Barlett and Peters would have been “sworn in” had it been a valid meeting.
Yesterday’s Council meeting then attempted to elect an acting Speaker, by unlawfully affording voting rights to Bartlett and Peters, who are not yet members of council.
Since the announcement by ANC provincial secretary, Deshi Ngxanga, that Bartlett and Peters were being redeployed to Sol Plaatje to serve as the Mayor and Speaker, the municipality has been disregarding processes and scrambling over its feet to accommodate the political directive.
The DA refuses to participate in the ANC’s political power games.
Sol Plaatje does not belong to the ANC, nor is it a law unto itself. While we agree that a new speaker and mayor must be elected to Sol Plaatje, this must be done in accordance with due process.
This includes declaring vacancies before council members are sworn in.
The DA will again report yesterday’s irregularities to the MEC of COGHSTA, as well as to the National Minister of COGTA, and we will alert SALGA too.