Why the DA will fight tooth and nail against coalition capture after attempted late-night hijacking of Ekurhuleni government
7 February 2023
The DA will go to court to contest the undemocratic, lawless, and opportunistic attempt by the EFF, ANC, and other minority parties in Council to illegally stitch together an illegitimate crooked coalition government and force it onto the residents of Ekurhuleni.
On the 2nd of February 2023, the legitimate incumbent Speaker of Council, Councillor Raymond Dhlamini, reconvened the business of the Ordinary Council of the 26th of January 2023 after it was adjourned following numerous disruptions by the ANC, ActionSA, and other ANC-proxy minority parties, chaotically exacerbated by thuggish threats of violence from the EFF. These undemocratic disruptions were unashamedly intended to disrupt the DA’s attempts to ensure service delivery for residents through a proposed motion without notice that would have prioritised the passing of the Adjustment Budget.
The Speaker, by adjourning proceedings, acted in defense of the democratic principle that voters have a right to orderly and constructive behaviour from elected officials. The Standing Rules of Council empower the Speaker to adjourn a Council meeting when there is gross disorderly conduct, deliberate disruption, or the use of threatening violence during a Council sitting. For this adherence to the rule of law, the DA in Gauteng lauds the legitimate Speaker, Raymond Dhlamini.
Unfortunately, this was not the end of the attempts by the ANC and its accomplices to undermine the democratic rights of voters in the City.
After the Speaker had rightly adjourned proceedings, the City Manager, Dr Imogen Mashazi, acted in gross defiance of the limits of her office and called for an Extraordinary Meeting. Let it be clear: this act of the City Manager and any ensuing gathering brought about by it are in breach of the law and a violation of the democracy South Africans fought for. Flagrant abuse of public office to violate the democratic rights of citizens harken back to some of the worst abuses of power in South African history. That political thuggery of this type now characterises the behaviour of the ANC and its various political accomplices is a tragic indication that some parties simply are unequal to the responsibilities voters have, in good faith, placed in them.
The City Manager was requested to convene the illegitimate gathering by the ANC and its minority proxy parties represented in Council.
The gathering was called in terms of Section 29 (1A) of the Municipal Structures Amendment Act of 2021 which states that: “If the Speaker or acting Speaker refuses to call a meeting of the Council as requested in terms of subsection (1), the municipal manager, or in the absence or refusal by the municipal manager, a person designated by the MEC for local government in the province, may call and chair the meeting.’’
According to Section 29 (1) of the Municipal Structures Act, 1998, “The Speaker of a municipal Council decides when and where the Council meets subject to section 18 (2), but if a majority of the Councillors requests the Speaker in writing to convene a Council meeting, the Speaker must convene a meeting at a time set out in the request”.
The Speaker did not receive the latter-mentioned request in writing from each Councillor for a meeting to be convened. As such there was no basis for the city manager to call or chair a meeting under Section 29 (1A), above. Furthermore, Rule 35 (2) of the City of Ekurhuleni Standing Orders by-law affirms that, “[i]n terms of section 29 (1) of the Structures Act, the Speaker decides where and when the Council meets.” This power is not given to the City Manager.
As such, the Speaker filed an urgent application with the Gauteng High Court in Johannesburg to interdict the special sitting. The urgent court application was argued two hours ahead of the start of the special sitting and was since granted, halting the illegal Council gathering from proceeding any further or having any legitimate consequences as though it was a meeting of Council.
In the subsequent Extraordinary Council Meeting, the business of Council was again halted by spurious and opportunistic calls for the motion of no confidence against the Speaker of Council to be debated ahead of the Adjustment Budget and a number of mandatory compliance items. These calls came, unsurprisingly, from those parties that have blatantly rejected the just democratic foundations of the South African constitutional system. These parties so stalled proceedings, that the Speaker subsequently, and again in line with the rule of law, adjourned the Council sitting.
Following this legitimate adjournment, the City Manager once again acted outside the limits of her office and again in violation of the democratic rights of voters, staging a coup d'etat through her unlawful invoking of Section 29(1A) of the Municipal Structures Act. This puts the City Manager in unambiguous and inexcusable breach of the order from the High Court.
The illegal actions of the City Manager led to the ANC, the EFF, ActionSA and other minority accomplice parties to attempt a late-night political heist by illegally reconvening the business of Council without the presence and consent of the legitimate Speaker.
At this conclave of corruption and chaos, Councillor Nthabiseng Tshivhengafrom the EFF was illegally chosen as acting Speaker in a brazen and pathetic attempt to give the political heist legal and procedural legitimacy.
Performing her charade of acting speakership, Councillor Tshivhenga, presided over several unlawful decisions, including a motion of no confidence, supported by the gathering, against the legitimate Speaker, Councillor Raymond Dhlamini. Councillor Tshivhenga’s contempt for the democratic process confirms the suspicion of voters that the EFF are, when the sound and fury vanishes, little more than rent seekers hoping to join the ANC in leeching and looting.
The most audacious ‘decision’ of the gathering, however, must be the ‘passage’ of motion without notice in terms of Rule 8 to suspend Rule 83(2)(i) of the Standing Orders. This rule prohibits a motion being brought twice within six months. The intention behind this is to open the way for a new motion of no confidence in the Executive Mayor, Alderman Tania Campbell, without having to wait until 26 April 2023 – six months since the last effort by a coalition of crooks and corruption sought to remove the DA-led Multiparty Coalition government in Ekurhuleni.
The blatancy, illegality, thuggery, and political opportunism of the ANC, the EFF, ActionSA and other stooge parties unfortunately cannot come as a surprise. The modus operandi of coalition capture, to the detriment of residents, has by now been firmly established.
It is important to note that Councillors are elected representatives of the city and have a moral responsibility to serve the constituencies they represent in Council meetings. As a key pillar of governance and administration in the Metro, Council meetings are a Constitutional requirement and are vital to the functioning of local government. They provide opportunities, paid for by residents, for political parties to debate and discuss items of importance that affect the lives and livelihoods of Ekurhuleni’s residents.
With the current political and economic climate that we find ourselves in, it is concerning that political parties would seek to shamelessly prioritise their unrelenting hunger for power, control, and access to lootable resources, over focusing their efforts on improving service delivery. Out of desperation to retain political relevance, these parties are working directly against the interests of residents to and control of the City of Ekurhuleni back to the ANC instead of joining forces with the DA to address years of infrastructural neglect, corruption, and maladministration.
As a party of the rule of law, the DA will be taking this matter to the High Court. Residents of Ekurhuleni deserve better than the political circus and procedural travesty that has played out in the City over these last few days.
The DA in Gauteng calls on those parties who seek to build rather than tear down to act in the best interests of residents and ensure the stable and smooth running of the Council and its proceedings. Only through stable, clean, competent, and compassionate government can we make the lives of residents better. The people deserve better and the DA will not let up in its fight to deliver.
Solly Msimanga is DA Gauteng Provincial Leader.
