Or maybe for Elliot Mzaza of the New Vision Party or maybe some other marginal party that actually makes sense.
At the monthly meeting of the Kindergarten today and during the debate on an item in the supplementary agenda dealing with the question of whether the municipality should assist the IEC to the tune of R17 800 000.00 by providing logistical, advocacy and publicity support to the IEC for the upcoming government local elections we witnessed a walkout of the entire DA, IDP and ACDP caucas.
These councillors walked out to calls of; “Bye, bye” and “It was long overdue.” But, the catcalls were soon stilled when the remaining councillors realised that this walkout had succeeded in bringing the council proceedings to an abrupt halt as the remaining 52 councillors present were 9 short of the quorum required to make a decision.
The only person to provide a measured response to this crisis (okay, Roland, challenge!) was the PAC’s Pule Lonake.
So for today I vote PAC, nice one Pule.
The majority party was in a bit of a quandry as in all my time attending to Council meetings this was the first time that they have ‘lost’ a contest. Of course the large number of absentee ANC members didn’t help their cause either.
Now a Special Council meeting will have to be re-convened and you can be sure that ALL the councillors belonging to the majority party will be present.
Within 7 days the resolution to help the IEC will have to be debated once again.
At stake is the expenditure of ratepayers funds as follows:
- Campaigns – 6 000 000.00
- Communication – 3 000 000.00
- Safety & Security – 800 000.00
- Logistics – 5 000 000.00
- Service Delivery – 3 000 000.00
- TOTAL – R17 800 000.00
Just a suggestion – how about treating voters as adults and just BRIBE them to vote?
Easy enough – make a deal with every single person who pays electricity and water in the Metro and credit their account with R100.00 for every person that they bring to the voting stations on the day. Such an innovative plan will get heaps of free publicity and the grateful thanks of every citizen in the metro.
And by the way guys – as the political parties stand at the moment I DO NOT SEE one that is acting like it has the will, capacity or the ability to govern it’s way out of a wet paper bag, let alone the metro after elections.
I expect to see you guys buck up a whole lot and stop:
- Organising fundraisers – they are out of your mandate
- Bashing the media – they help you get stronger by nitpicking
- Nitpicking rands and cents
- Forming Task Teams – sorry the new words are WAR ROOM – WTF, it is just another Task Team to me!
Okay children pack up time was a little early today – next time around I want to see all of you playing nicely together otherwise nap time will be severely curtailed.
Alan Straton
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You fail to mention what Pules measured response was?
You fail to mention what Pule’s measured response was!
Sorry – time got the better of me:
The ANC Councillors ‘discussions’ around the lack of quorum were all conjecture on exactly when the concept of a quorum was ‘in force’ – was it at the start of a debate or end.
Also they suggested voting immediately and to hell with the Councillors who had left.
Pule Lonake pointed out that a quorum governed the VOTING procedure and that according to Council Rules the meeting had to be immediately adjourned and re-convened in 7 days. All given in a non judgmental and factual tone.
I must confess to being impressed with Pule’s intellect and, dare I say it, middle of the road and logical arguments.
Sorry – time got the better of me:
The ANC Councillors ‘discussions’ around the lack of quorum were all conjecture on exactly when the concept of a quorum was ‘in force’ – was it at the start of a debate or end.
Also they suggested voting immediately and to hell with the Councillors who had left.
Pule Lonake pointed out that a quorum governed the VOTING procedure and that according to Council Rules the meeting had to be immediately adjourned and re-convened in 7 days. All given in a non judgmental and factual tone.
I must confess to being impressed with Pule’s intellect and, dare I say it, middle of the road and logical arguments.
Sorry – time got the better of me:
The ANC Councillors ‘discussions’ around the lack of quorum were all conjecture on exactly when the concept of a quorum was ‘in force’ – was it at the start of a debate or end.
Also they suggested voting immediately and to hell with the Councillors who had left.
Pule Lonake pointed out that a quorum governed the VOTING procedure and that according to Council Rules the meeting had to be immediately adjourned and re-convened in 7 days. All given in a non judgmental and factual tone.
I must confess to being impressed with Pule’s intellect and, dare I say it, middle of the road and logical arguments.