Durban - SPARKS flew at eThekwini Municipality’s full council meeting yesterday when ANC councillors threatened to assault DA councillor Shontel de Boer, who had commented on the Virginia Airport and how plans to develop the area were another white elephant.
The situation deteriorated to the point where mayor Mxolisi Kaunda unsuccessfully tried to defuse the situation. De Boer and council Speaker Weziwe Thusi got into a verbal altercation as the speaker demanded that De Boer withdraw her statement that Thusi had not protected her from ANC councillors who were haranguing her.
The agenda item under discussion was the plan to redevelop Virginia Airport.
The development of this airport has been a thorny issue for the municipality for about 10 years. The Mercury last December reported that the municipality had proposed the development of a catalytic project which would have tourism accommodation, retail outlets and luxury housing. Airport users had said they were startled by this revelation as they had not been notified.
De Boer argued that the redevelopment of the area would lead to job losses, and it would lose a niche airport that was used by emergency services helicopters.
She said the ANC had spent millions on white elephant projects such as the Moses Mabhida Stadium and uShaka Marine World, and that “the ghosts of radical economic transformation and former president Jacob Zuma still lingered”.
As she said this ANC councillors told her to go outside so that they could “kick her and deal with her”.
Human Settlements and Infrastructure Committee Councillor Thanduxolo Sabelo entered the fray and said they were going to develop the area anyway.
It was during these tense exchanges that De Boer asked Thusi to call to order the ANC councillors. She then told Thusi, who was trying to rein in the councillors, that she was supporting gender-based violence by not protecting her from being harangued.
Thusi demanded De Boer withdraw her remarks, but the DA councillor stuck to her guns and refused. Thusi did not pursue the matter further. ANC Councillor Nkosenhle Madlala said that radical economic transformation was a policy of the ANC.
“The problem we have is that we are dealing with proponents of the Group Areas Act,” he said.
During the council meeting, Kaunda also spoke about the 2021/2022 draft budget. He said there would be an increase in water and electricity tariffs. The increase was caused by above-inflation increases by Eskom and Umgeni Water. He said the municipality had done its best to protect residents.
He said eThekwini had a R52.2 billion budget and that Covid-19 had cost eThekwini R34bn across all sectors of the economy. He said 6 000 companies had closed down during this period.
“The city had a capital expenditure of R5.2bn and some of the money would include R2.87bn towards human settlements and R1.4bn on roads and storm water drains, among other money that the city planned to spend,” said Kaunda.
The IFP’s Mdu Nkosi said they would support the budget, and the DA’s Thabani Mthethwa said they would comment on it when it was formally tabled in May and abstained from voting on it.
The meeting continued late into the evening, and at the time of publication there was no discussion about City Manager Sipho Nzuza. He had appeared in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court on Tuesday on an application to relax his bail conditions, however an order was handed down by the court that he could not act as an “accounting manager” at the municipality while the fraud and corruption trial, involving his wife, former mayor Zandile Gumede and others, continued.
He and the other accused are accused of being involved in a multimillion-rand Durban Solid Waste tender.
Prior to the full council meeting, a special Exco meeting was called, however it was closed to the media.
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