Kimberley has dodged a bullet - until when?
Kimberley has been in the grip of protests and threats of protests which occasionally turned violent, since the beginning of June to the end of July. And now it is over, until 22 August. As a councillor only since 2016, I learned a lot about democracy in the beloved country. The first thing is if it happens far away from the big urban centres it hardly registers. While we were worked up because of violence, vandalism and looting, people in other parts of the country did not quite notice, unless it is their field of study.
Maybe the lessons should be interrupted for a short narrative:
Shortly after the election of 2016 it was abundantly clear that the ANC caucus in the Sol Plaatje municipality was divided in two factions: The mayor, who was Ramaphosa-aligned, and the speaker, Zuma-aligned. With the council meeting of 28 May 2018, the budget had to be tabled, but there was also a motion of no confidence against the speaker, lodged by the ANC, and one against the mayor, by the DA. As a matter of fact, according to standing rules none could be tabled yet, but the speaker did apparently not know that.
Therefore, she adjourned the meeting just after it was opened, blaming it on a dispute regarding the public gallery. Together with all the DA-members she marched out and they were greeted outside by blue t-shirts, yellow Zuma t-shirts and the provincial leader of the DA. The municipal manager invoked a ruling of the Western Cape High Court between the Premier of that province and the Overberg municipality, and called a meeting for the 31st of May. All councillors were duly instructed.
On 31 May 2018 the council was met with striking absences from individual ANC-members. The speaker ruled that the meeting was irregular and left, with all of the DA. Whips of the ANC, EFF, COPE, the FF Plus and an independent councillor consulted with their respective legal advisors and agreed to request the municipal manager to call a meeting again, directly afterwards. He did so, an acting speaker was elected and the budget was tabled. To my surprise, we would only vote about it; an opportunity to discuss it would follow within a few days. The DA said the meeting was unlawful and they would go to court to have the budget declared illegal.