The ANC put on a strong display of unity during a press briefing following an drama-charged special council meeting in Makana Municipality today, as they denied the Kabuso Report had thrown the organisation into crisis.
During the Council session the party easily defeated motions of no confidence in Mayor Zamuxolo Peter and Speaker Rachel Madinda-Isaac.
The ANC put on a strong display of unity during a press briefing following an drama-charged special council meeting in Makana Municipality today, as they denied the Kabuso Report had thrown the organisation into crisis.
During the Council session the party easily defeated motions of no confidence in Mayor Zamuxolo Peter and Speaker Rachel Madinda-Isaac.
The DA tabled these in response to allegations of wrongdoing contained in the so-called Kabuso Report – a forensic audit of Makana Municipality which brought the City into the national spotlight recently.
Tempers reached boiling point during the Council meeting as Democratic Alliance caucus leader Les Reynolds and councillor Brian Jackson tabled the motions of no confidence.
Acting municipal manager Themba Mnguni had to intervene as Madinda-Isaac and DA councillor Lena May went head-to-head regarding the standing rules of council.
May banged repeatedly on the desk in front of her in an effort to raise a point of order, while Madinda-Isaac insisted Mnguni continue to count the hands of the ANC councillors who had voted against the motions.
The 19 ANC councillors outvoted the handful of DA councillors in favour of the motions. Before each vote, ANC chief whip Julia Wells had rejected both motions in their entirety, including the request by the DA for a secret ballot.
All the DA councillors and Congress of the People councillor Ruth Plaatjie asked for their names to be placed on record as being in favour of the motion. Meanwhile the much-talked-about Kabuso Report was finally tabled during a confidential session midway through the meeting. Both DA and ANC councillors afterwards confirmed that the report remained confidential.
The ANC media briefing afterwards kicked off with singing, as Sara Baartman regional secretary Scara Njadayi stressed the importance of unity within the organisation.
In response to media questions, he was at pains to deny that there was infighting in the ANC, and declared that the Kabuso Report was not, in fact a report, but a draft document.
The Mayor, who addressed the gathered ANC councillors and reporters, cast the report as part of a "trend" of investigations leading up to the 2016 elections.
Commenting on their failure to have the no-confidence motions passed, DA leader in the Makana Council Les Reynolds said, "We knew it would be that way. We knew we would be outvoted, but as the opposition we had to do it."
Reynolds emphasised that the motions were not personal attacks, but political moves.
"The Speaker is a very nice person," Reynolds said. "It's not about her, but what she did."
