Pretoria - ANC councillors had a predetermined intention to disrupt Tuesday’s ordinary sitting of the City of Tshwane council, both the DA and EFF charged on Wednesday.
Tshwane mayor Solly Msimanga told the Pretoria News the chaos that erupted in council had nothing to do with politics, but was intended to prevent it from conducting its business.
EFF caucus leader Benjamin Disoloane said the ANC mobilised its members to disrupt the sitting.
The ANC, meanwhile, defended its councillors and blamed the disruption on council Speaker Rachel Mathebe, saying her application of rules was inconsistent.
Unprecedented scenes unfolded when the ANC councillors threatened to physically remove two political office bearers who they claimed were illegally appointed by Msimanga.
The heckling, pushing, shoving and punching continued throughout the day and peaked after Mathebe asked ANC councillor Lesego Makhubela to leave the chamber. He refused, and Mathebe asked metro police to remove him, but they were met with flying chairs and plastic bottles from ANC councillors.
Earlier in the drama-filled day, a group of residents attempted to storm into council, saying they were unhappy with their ward councillor.
Msimanga said these actions constituted a clearly hatched plan by the ANC to render the city ungovernable. The ANC knew the ruling party was on the brink of uncovering serious corruption scandals, and its intention was to prevent this.
“But I declare that they will not succeed, and the next ordinary sitting will go ahead. I refused to postpone proceedings and informed the Speaker that we could continue until the next day if we had to,” he said.
The chaos brought to light the fact that the ANC still had power and influence within the municipality, he said.
He feared that if the anarchy continued, it would become acceptable and spread to other municipalities, including those governed by the ANC.
“We need to find a solution. An EFF councillor was attacked by an ANC counterpart, and our own Elma Nel was assaulted by an ANC councillor and is receiving medical attention. That is pure hooliganism.”
The mayor said the ANC must learn from the DA, which never disrupted council when it was in opposition.
“Property was damaged and, as such, I will ensure security is beefed up next time. The Speaker was within her rights to call security to council when matters got out of hand. We need to chart a way forward, and I will be meeting with all political parties, as well as (MEC) Paul Mashatile and Premier David Makhura. They must step up and address their comrades.”
The EFF's Disoloane also suggested that law and order be maintained at council by intensifying security during the meetings.
He said Makhubela violated the rules, but yet refused to leave. “The ANC wants council not to function so that it can be put under administration,” he said.
“It should be recalled that all parties are governing Tshwane under the leadership of the DA. The ANC does not want to accept that it is now the opposition. They are trying to run the city from the grave.”
He said the grandstanding behaviour of the ANC would bring service delivery to its knees. “The ANC has to respect the rules of the council and people of Tshwane.”
ANC caucus leader Mapiti Matsena blamed Mathebe for not consistently applying council rules. “She is not clued up with the rules,” he said.
During the August council meeting, EFF councillors were disruptive but the Speaker did not order them to be removed, Matsena said. “We want the Speaker to apply the rules consistently without showing favouritism to the EFF and DA. I wrote the council rules. There is no rule that says that metro police must be allowed to remove a disruptive councillor.”
Matsena said the MMC for safety and security was told the application of the rule was wrong.
He said the ANC demanded that if Makhubela was going to be removed, the same rule should apply to DA councillors who interrupted his speech. “We stated that there was no need for police to enter the chamber because no one was in danger,” he said.
Matsena said the metro police were pressured to execute the instructions of the mayor and speaker. “The chief of the police told them he did not have the legislative power to remove them,” he said.
“There were 30 officers, one of them armed with a gun. They beat up our councillor and at the time Makhubela was nowhere near the scuffle.”
Matsena said the ANC had accepted it was opposition. “We are not like the mayor who opened a case when there are issues to be dealt with in council.”
Msimanga laid charges against senior officials of the previous ANC regime for alleged corruption related to the renovations at the City Hall and official mayoral residence.
Mashatile on Wednesday hastily convened a meeting with Tshwane political party leaders. He said: “We agreed that the rules committee should look at loopholes, and close them to ensure the smooth running of the city.
“The Speaker will make rulings from time to time that members of council must abide by, but that does not take away the right to engage and disagree in debates.”
He said all political parties agreed there was no room for violent behaviour in council.
He said the violence should never happen again.
“The important thing is to avoid the use of police in dealing with our issues,” Mashatile added.
Pretoria News