Party Walks Out of Irregular and Unlawful Council Meeting

Statement by Cllr Sue Bentley – DA Buffalo City Caucus Leader:

The Democratic Alliance (DA) today walked out of a virtual sitting of the Buffalo City Council because the meeting had been irregularly and unlawfully convened.

The virtual council meeting convened yesterday but was unilaterally terminated and postponed to today by the ANC Speaker of Council, Humphrey Maxegwana, before the DA could formally record its dissent.

The postponement of yesterday’s meeting was intended to delay council proceedings so that an outstanding MPAC report could be tabled today.

This report was tabled at the last council meeting a month ago and had been approved by the full MPAC committee. However, ANC councillors were later pressured to withdraw their support for the report, which led to it being referred back to MPAC for review.

The report reflected negatively on the municipality, particularly the ANC Executive Mayor, Princess Faku, due to her absence from recent MPAC public hearings.

The revised report, which still requires sign-off by the MPAC committee before it can form part of the council agenda, was not available at yesterday’s meeting. As a result, councillors were unable to do due diligence and properly consider it. Therefore, it cannot be included in today’s agenda.

At a hastily convened multiparty whips committee meeting yesterday, the DA opposed postponing the council meeting. We also rejected any attempt to suggest that we supported a false consensus to postpone and reconvene the meeting outside the timeframes set by the council’s rules of order.

We also requested a legal opinion on the matter, but none was provided.

After seeking private legal advice on the legality of reconvening the postponed meeting today, we chose to walk out of the virtual meeting to distance the party from any decisions taken.

Any decisions taken today at this irregularly reconvened meeting are legally flawed, and subject to judicial review.

The DA has written to the Speaker outlining our concerns in his handling of yesterday’s council meeting and highlighted that the meeting convened today is irregular.

We have also written to the Municipal Manager, Mxolisi Yawa, requesting a written legal opinion on the validity of the postponement and the subsequent reconvening of the meeting.

The DA remains committed to ensuring accountability and compliance within the Metro.

The people of Buffalo City deserve transparency, accountability, and responsible municipal management to get Buffalo City working.