Port Elizabeth – The African National Congress (ANC) demanded on Tuesday that Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor Francois Greyling undergo a breathalyser test at a special council meeting as they allege he came to the sitting "drunk".
Several ANC councillors came out with claws on Council Speaker Jonathan Lawack demanding that Greyling undergo a breathalyser test immediately at the the first council meeting of 2017.
"If there is a strong allegation of a drunk councillor, Mayor I ask you to lead us. There is a serious allegation that there is a drunk councillor in this house and we cannot sweep it under the carpet," said ANC party leader Bicks Ndoni.
Ndoni alleged that the councillor was visibly drunk and DA councillors were even embarrassed to see him in a drunken state at the council meeting.
"Some of them even said to us we must sympathise with him because he has domestic problems. We can't allow council to be a place where people come drunk. The mayor should have dealt with the matter but what he is doing is creating a precedent."
"People will come [to council] drunk and they say they will investigate, if you are drunk and there's still to be an investigation how long is that going to take? The matter must be dealt with immediately," said Ndoni.
In response, Executive Mayor Athol Trollip, dismissed the allegations made by the ANC and said there were no rules with regard to intoxicated people. "There is absolutely no provision in this rule book about intoxication or drunk people in attendance here.
There are allegations made on a weekly basis about drunk ministers in parliament, there was an allegation about a drunk minister in this metro recently. There is absolutely no provision for this it's a frivolous matter," said Trollip.
Speaker Jonathan Lawack gave a stern warning to ANC members and accused them of conducting themselves in a disrupt manner. He further ruled that the allegation of intoxication in the particular councillor would be dealt with by Trollip at another time.