Multi-party coalition acts to remove speaker & safeguard budget

31 March 2023

The multi-party coalition has filed petitions signed by a majority of councillors in the City of Tshwane calling for a motion of no confidence in the Speaker to be heard on 12 April and for a meeting to table the adjustment budget for 2022/23 and the draft budget for 2023/24 on 13 April 2023.

These submissions are made in terms of Sec 29(1) of the Municipal Structures Act which states that:

“29 (1) The speaker of a municipality council decides when and where the council meets subject to section 18(2), but if a majority of the councillors request the speaker in writing to convene a council meetings, the speaker must convene a meeting at a time set out in the request.”

The coalition discussed the utterances by the ANC and EFF to suggest the coalition should leave the Speaker in place and rejected this proposal with contempt. This multi-party coalition does not co-govern with the ANC and EFF and will not place faith in the Speaker’s ability to lead the legislature without having his strings pulled by the ANC and EFF. It is clear that the ANC and EFF are in partnership made between Panyaza Lesufi and the EFF and our multi-party coalition will not play any role in tacitly supporting such an arrangement.

The Speaker has been given until close of business today to issue the notices for the meetings and the Municipal Manager and MEC of COGTA have copied in accordance with their legal obligations in the event the Speaker does not comply.

The submission of these petitions will be coupled with urgent court papers that will be filed simultaneously to ensure the meetings take place, to interdict the Speaker from interfering in these meetings and to ensure that all councillors are interdicted from disruption. This will ensure that any effort to prevent Council from removing the Speaker or frustrating the budget approval will take place in contempt of court.

These steps are undertaken as a necessity in the work of stabilising the City of Tshwane. The first step has been taken by electing a coalition-aligned Mayor who has moved swiftly to appoint a Mayoral Committee and begin work on the budget. These were critical steps to ensure service delivery is felt in communities across Tshwane. This progress will be undermined unless the most decisive steps announced are undertaken to remove the Speaker and protect the budget process.

The multi-party coalition will continue to act both decisively and unapologetically to stabilise the City of Tshwane so that service delivery is the focus of the municipality and not a return of the political wranglings of the last few weeks.

Issued by Cornè Mulder on behalf of the Multi-party coalition, 31 March 2023