The dissolution of Makana Independent New Deal (Mind) doesn’t bother former Mind PR councillor Devon Waldick who represented the party on council before being expelled for non-performance.
The dissolution of Makana Independent New Deal (Mind) doesn’t bother former Mind PR councillor Devon Waldick who represented the party on council before being expelled for non-performance.
News of Mind’s closure came from party founder Jock McConnachie, but "No one has communicated the dissolution of the party to me or my attorneys. I have seen media reports but no one informed me of this," Waldick said.
The controversial councillor told Grocott’s Mail in an interview this week that he didn’t fear losing his job after what happened to Mind as he is an independent councillor.
"Mind was a grouping of independents, I don’t bother about McConnachie. I did not sign a contract with the IEC – their role is to facilitate free elections. "There was a dispute in the party and they [IEC] ignored that. I am an independent councillor and I have no fears of losing my job."
He said he doesn’t care about what McConnachie does now since the founder killed his own idea.
"He has been planning to take me down for a long time – he is zero in my eyes and he will not succeed," Waldick said, adding that he would leave the Makana council only when he decided to.
McConnachie announced the dissolution of his party a couple of weeks ago in a media statement.
He said the decision to end Mind was as a result of Makana Acting Municipal Manager Thembinkosi Myalato’s failure to declare a vacancy in the party’s PR seat after Waldick had been expelled.
Mind’s executive committee expelled Waldick for failing to represent the interests of the party in council and for non-performance.
The party unsuccessfully sought legal action to have Waldick withdrawn as their proportional representation councillor last year.
On the website of civic development organisation Education and Training Unit it states that "A Proportional Representative [PR] councillor loses his or her seat when membership of the relevant party is terminated. PR councillors can be withdrawn and replaced at any time by their party, except during the floor-crossing window period.
"Vacancies are filled from the party list or a supplementary list submitted by the party. If a PR councillor crosses the floor during the window period, they may not be replaced by their party and the party effectively loses a seat."
Yet the 21-year-old councillor is determined to finish his term in council and told this newspaper, "They will have to remove me physically from the council, I am not going anywhere".
When asked about rumours of Waldick crossing over to the ruling party, he said if he decided to do that he would call a press conference to make the announcement.
Grocott's Mail attempted to contact Myalato for comment but he didn’t respond by the time of going to press.
