By Luvuyo Mjekula
The Makana Citizens Front (MCF) snubbed a special council meeting this week, citing problems with certain agenda items, including municipal policies, the Integrated Development Plan (IDP) and budget, as well as municipal debt write-off.
The MCF accused the council Speaker, Mabhuti Matyumza, of disregarding a council resolution on draft policies.
In a letter to Matyumza before the meeting, MCF leader Lungile Mxube spelt out the grounds for their decision. “In the previous Council, all draft policies were withdrawn by Council and further resolved that, [the Speaker’s]office must convene a policy workshop so that all policies must be workshopped before Council can adopt them. That position or decision and resolution of Council remains unchanged,” Mxube wrote.
He said it was therefore “unlawful and irregular for you to unilaterally accept an item that conflicts with the existing Council resolution”.
The MCF was unaware that any policy workshop had been allegedly convened, which could have paved the way for policies to be brought back to the Council.
The MCF further expressed distaste “at the way the item has been sneaked into our emails”.
The organisation said this was a direct violation of the Rules of Order. “To bring a new item (policies) which conflicts with existing Council resolution is irregular, as the old resolution was never rescinded. For this reason alone, this item (adoption of policies) must fall. See paragraphs 7 and 9 of the Rules of Order,” Mxube stated in the letter.
He accused Matyumza of using “draconian leadership and bullying tactics” in leading the Council and expected him to dismiss the MCF’s submission without any substantive grounds. This was because Matyumza had done so before, Mxube alleged. “Unfortunately, Honourable Speaker, the Makana Citizens Front PR councillors will not agree with you when you are violating the law, undermining the decorum of the Council and making it a laughing stock, a circus, a social club or a study group of an arrogant ANC bench.”
The MCF also questioned the draft IDP and budget tabling at the council meeting. “We are of the view that, before a draft IDP and budget are presented to Council, you ought to have convened a session similar to the one of the Financial Recovery Plan so that we can be presented with all records of public participation processes, minutes, inputs from citizens, copy of attendance registers.
“We are of the view that the whole mayoral IDP and Budget outreach was not public participation, and both the draft IDP and budget are not a product of a meaningful participation process and are not based on the will of the people.”
The MCF stressed that its caucus did not wish to be part of a process that could result in an illegitimate IDP and adoption of policies that the Council does not adequately review.
On the item of debt write-off, the MCF argued that there was a lack of comprehensive details on several aspects, including the mechanism used to make a final determination on uncollectable/irrecoverable debt. “We draw your attention to Section 32 (b) of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA), which requires that a write-off can only be certified by the Council after an investigation by a Council committee as irrecoverable, in this case, the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC). We can confirm that MPAC did not investigate the matters listed on page 72 under Section 7.6. Any approval of this write-off will be irregular, non-compliant and unlawful.”
The organisation recommended that Matyumza postpone the meeting and convene a consequence management and policy workshop first. He should also allow councillors to go through the draft policies reviewed by municipal senior officials and not by councillors. Should you fail to accept, give us a written response by no later than the end of business on 2 June 2025.
Grocott’s Mail understands that the meeting went ahead without the five MCF councillors.
Makana Municipality spokesperson Anele Mjekula had not responded to questions by publication.
