Forcing aside a municipal official to access her laptop at the Gqeberha City Hall, ANC councillor Noxolo Koko disconnected several councillors from a hybrid council meeting on Friday, including mayor Retief Odendaal.
Koko, along with other ANC councillors and the EFF, attended the meeting at the city hall while others logged in from the Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium, various municipal offices and their homes.
The meeting descended into chaos as bickering broke out over three Northern Alliance councillors taking part in a vote that could see city manager Noxolo Nqwazi probed by the metro’s disciplinary board.
Koko disconnected several councillors within the governing coalition after the ANC’s Lorna Makwetu was repeatedly muted by another councillor while trying to talk.
When Odendaal logged back in, he threatened to report a criminal complaint against any councillor who disconnected others again.
The bedlam led to one of the several unannounced “breaks” which contributed to delays in the meeting that started at 11am — two hours later than scheduled.
The meeting was meant to start with a report on Nqwazi in which Odendaal recommended that the metro’s disciplinary board investigate several allegations made against her by the UDM.
Details of the allegations are contained in a letter by the UDM’s regional spokesperson, Yongama Zigebe, tabled with Odendaal’s report at Tuesday’s marathon council meeting.
However, that meeting collapsed.
Zigebe accused Nqwazi of incurring fruitless and wasteful expenditure to fight three Northern Alliance councillors in court after she asked the electoral commission to declare three vacancies in the council.
Other allegations stem from her appointment and a Special Investigating Unit investigation into a R24m toilet tender.
Opposition councillors wanted to know if the Northern Alliance could take part in the debate and vote about Nqwazi.
They also argued the Northern Alliance’s Gary van Niekerk could not preside over the debate as he was directly involved.
Van Niekerk eventually recused himself.
“I will step down as speaker for the item in which I am mentioned.
“However, if it comes down to a vote I will participate,” he said.
But ANC councillor Buyelwa Mafaya said it was against the rules for the speaker to participate in a meeting after recusing himself.
“Maybe I should explain the meaning of recusal in terms of the council’s rules.
“It means that you must remove yourself from all proceedings pertaining to the item in question.
“You can’t debate it and you certainly can’t vote.”
GOOD councillor Lawrence Troon hit back, saying Mafaya was “talking nonsense”.
Mafaya told Troon she would take the matter up with the rules and ethics committee as it was not the first time he had verbally attacked her.
Acting city manager Selwyn Thys then took charge of the meeting and nominated deputy mayor and AIM councillor Khusta Jack as acting speaker.
EFF councillor Khanya Ngqisha was also nominated, forcing a vote to take place.
After a lengthy debate about how Thys would monitor the secrecy of the votes for councillors who were not connected in the same venues as others, ANC and EFF councillors were muted and did not participate in the vote.
After a vote for those connected virtually, Thys told councillors the numbers did not add up.
“The results do not match the number of [councillors] registered for virtual attendance, and the council will not continue with item one [dealing with Nqwazi] and electing an acting speaker,” he said.
Mafaya then said: “I hope the media is watching what the DA is doing, muting and disconnecting us.”
Councillors then moved to the second confidential item with Van Niekerk taking up his position again.
The item involved suspended economic, development, tourism and agriculture executive director Anele Qaba, accused of signing a deviation that ultimately led to Moximark Pty (Ltd) being hand-picked as a middleman between the municipality and SMMEs.
Qaba has rubbished the allegations.
The media was then asked to leave the city hall, with the item discussed behind closed doors.
Odendaal said on the sidelines it was unfortunate the council had to degenerate to such an extent that items could not be debated.
“What the councillor [Koko] did was uncalled for because no-one removed them from city hall where they were connected.
“We are faced with yet another classic case of chaos.
“Council is back in session and no-one can tell for how long because anything can happen and we could be back where we started.”
ANC councillor Wandisile Jikeka said a lack of knowledge by Thys had left them “excommunicated” from the meeting.
“We have heard that they started online to vote, including the three Northern Alliance councillors, while we were still arguing if they can vote or not.
“Our view is that if they must recuse themselves from participating as they were affected by one of the items, it means they are not supposed to participate,” he said.
“We are denied our right to participate in the meeting and take part as voting representatives.
“We hope the DA-led coalition will not take decisions that will be dire to residents and have financial implications.”
HeraldLIVE
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