As the temperature soared toward the predicted 40C maximum a heated exchange in the Makana Council Chamber Monday 29 October, saw the DA caucus walk out in protest, forcing an adjournment of the Special Council Meeting. Citing the failure to pay Eskom and the resulting threat that the supply to the town will be cut on 4 December, the party says the Mayor should resign. They have voiced their support for the call by some residents to dissolve the council and for fresh elections to be held within three months.
Along with the regularisation of some encroachments of municipal land and a progress report on the new spatial development framework, items on the agenda for today’s meeting included a report on unauthorised, irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure for the first quarter, the first-quarter performance report and a report responding to concerns of the Provincial Treasury.
In her introductory remarks, the Speaker commented on the dire sewage problem affecting Extension 9 and Extension 6. Severe blockages have led to houses and streets in those areas being flooded with raw sewage in recent weeks. The Speaker said these were as a result of employees not doing their jobs of maintaining the sewage lines.
In her introductory remarks, the Mayor spoke about the frustration of cleaning up areas as part of the ward-based clean-up campaign, only to have residents dump rubbish again in the same spots.
“Keeping Makana clean is everyone’s responsibility,” Nomhle Gaga said. “It starts with your body, your house, your children, neighbours, schools, neighbourhoods and towns. It’s not expensive to pick up a paper.”
Speaking about sanitation, Gaga said bucket toilets had been completely eradicated in Makhanda’s (Grahamstown’) informal settlements.
“Now the residents of Sun City expect the municipality to collect buckets from there,” Gaga said. “They are double dipping.”
Gaga was referring to the fact that some Sun City residents have been allocated RDP houses but have allegedly chosen to rent them out instead of living in them.
It was Sun City that was the cause of the walkout by the eight DA councillors.
During the meeting, Councillor Mlindi Nhanha said he’d submitted a motion to the municipal manager on 20 September 2018, asking him to include in the council agenda the plight of residents of Sun City.
Sun City is an informal settlement built on a disused dumpsite.
In a statement after the walkout, Nhanha said, “The requirements that a motion should be submitted 10 days before the sitting of council, was adhered to and the motion has been with the municipal manager for about 35 days.
“Failure by the ANC government in Makana to include this motion, confirms our long held belief they don’t care about the people and that the plight and living conditions of the residents of Sun City is not a priority for them.”
In today’s meeting, ANC Chief Whip Mabhuti Matyumza called for a caucus break to decide how to respond to the DA walk-out.
Commenting on the DA walk-out on their return, Council Speaker Yandiswa Vara said, “This was not unexpected. Elections are around the corner and things of this nature must be expected.
“We have a quorum challenge and so the meeting will adjourn.”
The EFF has two councillors, both PR. The ANC has 11 ward councillors and 6 PR councillors. The DA has 8.
The DA caucus walkout left 13 of 27 councillors in the Council Chamber and no quorum. Four ANC councillors absent means they were missing their usual two-thirds majority.
The Special Council meeting was adjourned to Wednesday 7 November at 9am.
Eskom cut-off
In her introductory remarks, the Mayor noted that Eskom had been paid and that the cut-off was no longer a threat.
However, Grocott’s Mail 29 October sent a query to Eskom and received the following response:
“Eskom confirms that Makana Local Municipality made minimal payments early in October. The two amounts paid are nowhere near to what the municipality owes. Eskom continues to follow the legal process as advertised.”
*Grocott’s Mail has since requested clarity on the situation from Makana Municipality.
In the DA statement, citing Eskom’s threat to throttle the electricity supply to Makhanda (Grahamstown) as a result of Makana’s unpaid debt, Nhanha said the party demanded that the mayor resign and a capable person be elected in her place.
“During the short stint of Ted Pillay as acting Municipal Manager, Makana’s Eskom debt was reduced from just under R70 million to a manageable R36 million in the space of four months,” Nhanha said. “Under the Mayor’s watch the municipality defaulted on the payment plan agreed to with Eskom. We are back to square one and Makana now owe the power utility about R69 million.
“It is worth noting that in 2017 council adopted a DA sponsored resolution that all revenue generated from the sale of electricity be ring-fenced and used to service the Eskom debt. It is the Mayor’s responsibility to ensure that council resolutions are implemented without fail. The mayor has failed the residents of Makana and failed to steer an ad hoc committee that was set up to develop a strategy to save the Municipality from collapse.”
Nhanha said the party supported the call by concerned residents to dissolve the council and that fresh elections be held within three months.
A petition campaign by a group of residents calling for the dissolution of Council stands at 12 750 signatures as of 29 October, according to organiser Daphne Timm.
