A two-night mountain retreat in the plush Champagne Valley Resort in the Drakensberg involving ANC members of the eThekwini executive committee (Exco) and high-ranking municipal officials has raised the ire of the opposition who have accused the city of using ratepayers’ money for a “political jaunt”.
Since Wednesday afternoon, city manager, Sbu Sithole, his deputies as well as several heads of departments have been on a “strategic retreat” with mayor James Nxumalo and ANC members of Exco including deputy mayor, Nomvuzo Shabalala, Nigel Gumede, Logie Naidoo, Stanley Xulu and Fawzia Peer.
Members of the opposition who sit on the eThekwini Exco - DA councillors Zwakele Mncwango and Heinz de Boer as well as the IFP’s Mdu Nkosi and the NFP’s Bongiwe Mtshali - were not invited.
They said the meeting was shrouded in secrecy and went against the Municipal Structures Act as all decisions and strategies involving the city must go through the full executive committee and involve all parties.
The retreat was due to end today.
“Not only were we not invited, we were not even informed that this meeting was taking place,” Nkosi said on Thursday.
“I have no problem with the ANC meeting with city officials but if the city is having to pay for this meeting then that is totally wrong. You cannot have the city officials making decision with only one political party. If they are going to use municipal resources and municipal money, then we as exco need to know about it,” he said.
Mtshali said she had heard that there was going to be a Drakensberg retreat two weeks ago and had expected to get an invitation.
“I did not know they had gone already. It is a surprise to me. If this thing has anything to do with council then we should all have been invited. If they are using ANC money I don’t have a problem but if they are using council money then that is fraud and theft and they need to explain themselves,” she said.
“We are supposed to take decisions together but now it seems as if they are undermining us.”
Mayoral spokesman, Sthembiso Mshengu, was surprised when questioned by the Daily News yesterday, asking: “How do you know I am in the Drakensberg?”
When told he had posted it on Facebook he said he sat on “various bodies” and could be there on business for any of them. However, he conceded that a retreat was being held by the city, explaining that only the chairmen of the various city committees were invited.
“There is nothing abnormal here and there is nothing hidden. It is about an opportunity for the city manager to present his operational plan together with all his service delivery units and their plans before the chairpersons of the portfolio committee because at the end of the day they are not taken by surprise when these programmes come up at their committees,” Mshengu said.
He said that the opposition should not be angry as they had no basis to argue as only committee chairs were invited.
“Fortunately for some and unfortunately for others all the chairs come from the ruling party... For them (opposition members of exco) to be invited would have added no value. Whatever is being discussed here at the end of the day they will be part of it because they also sit in portfolio committee and are ultimately members of the executive committee,” Mshengu said.
Mncwango said the “luxury jaunt to an exclusive Drakensberg holiday resort” was yet another example of the mismanagement of public funds.
“The retreat is funded by council and this clearly undermines the Municipal Structures Act. The act makes no provision for (an) ANC caucus but only recognises (an) executive committee that involves all parties.
“Judging by the secrecy surrounding the trip it has become quite clear that the trip has nothing to do with the executive committee, but is rather an ANC strategic meeting that is being funded by the public,” he said.
Mncwango said that the opposition had been increasingly sidelined by the ANC in council who often go on exco visits and inspections without them.
“We will be asking all those councillors on the trip to do what has been asked so many times - to pay back the money (from the trip),” he said.
“The DA will never support the ANC using public funds to go off on luxury trips, at the expense of our already suffering ratepayers. I will be writing to MEC for Cogta (Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs) Nomusa Dube to institute (an) investigation on this extravaganza holiday.”
eThekwini speaker, Logie Naidoo, was also surprised that the Daily News had found out about the retreat.
He said there was nothing sinister about it, but was merely a bosberaad (bush meeting) to do a mid-term review of council.
He said that while all the chairs had been invited, the opposition was not because “you cannot have a successful bosberaad with conflicting interests and groups”.
“It’s like when the president calls a meeting with his people he does not (invite the opposition),” Naidoo said.
- Daily News