What would a council meeting be without a little bit of posturing, lip pouting, foot stamping and downright childish behaviour? Efficient and focused on service delivery would be my answer. But, it would appear that Government’s little foot soldiers have an over extended view of their position and reason for being that they think needs to be supplemented with a sprinkling of petulance.
See the image a little bit further down of the UDM’s Councillor Bobani being escorted out of the Council Chamber by a couple of heavyweight security personnel.
Okay, talking about security personnel I have to note that for the first time ever, media were issued with accreditation before being allowed to enter the council chamber – does this mean that further down the line that certain media will not ‘qualify’ for accreditation? Just thinking out aloud here!
There was also a heavy, more visible presence of security before entering the Council Chambers – come on councillors if you are aware of a security threat against yourselves it would be nice to know in advance so that I can at least slip the old flak jacket on in the morning and colour co-ordinate it with my other attire!
I did feel decidedly under dressed in Council, though, as the councillors were all decked out in smart colonial attire – suits for the men and a sprinkling of designer dresses for the women. Sheesh kebab guys – some traditional dress is, I presume, acceptable. To my mind, traditional dress would be quite an exciting option shaming the more portly into feeding less at the ratepayer trough and highlighting the more comely as their heaving breasts shake with indignation at having to rubber stamp the shuffling of R565 000.00 to a ‘small business’ that took nearly a year to submit an invoice (there were others totaling more a million rand!) as it was a “small business with limited capacity”. Sheesh kebab – if you or I had rendered quality work to the amount of R565 00.00 we would have been knocking on doors immediately after the completion of our project.
Or is it just another case of the supply chain being ignored, promises being made to a comrade and now the time has come to pay the piper and we need to raid another department that is not actually using their budget as it is too much of an effort to actually spend money on service delivery?
As my dear old sainted Grandmother used to say; “You can put a baby in a suit but, at the end of the day, it still craps in it’s pants“.
There were whining babies aplenty at Council: Around 10 minutes after Councillor Mongameli Bobani made his remarks questioning the Deputy Mayor’s ability to write a speech, the penny dropped and Councillor Chippa Ngcolomba took offence on behalf of the Deputy Mayor requesting an apology. Now if Chippa had been in traditional attire he could have made a fine spectacle rattling his spear and fighting sticks with tassels and tails a-flying. Enough to intimidate any old UDM foe into a whimpering apology, Chippa old boy. Have you noticed just how restricting Armani can be?
Of course, in the absence of fighting sticks, one has to fall back on words and the back and forth between Speaker Maria Hermans insisting on an apology or eviction from Council and Bobani refusing was becoming a tad embarrassing until Hermans instructed the security personnel to remove Bobani from the Chamber. Four heavyweights did their duty as some Councillors hurriedly consulted their books of rules for a refresher and others pretended that they did not know this pupil being chased out of the class by the principal.
So what did we learn on Council Thursday, boys and girls?
- The actual business of Council started at 11:05 am (the time leading up to it was, well, wasted).
- The ratepayers paid an extra R13 Million a month for the dubious ‘privilege’ of water restrictions and higher tariffs. See: Elias Ntoba, Your Water Sales Figures DO NOT Match Barry Martin’s Water Consumption Figures.
- Councillors are more interested in debating their electricity, stationery and other perks than actually doing any work.
- The Green Paper (private and not for public) discussion documents were 10 times thicker than the council agenda.
- Sigh – what has changed?
Alan Straton
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According to William Shakespear would the council meetings be classified as a Tragedy or a Comedy? Am dying to go and witness these Council meetings for myself. Are they an open to the public and how does one find out the date, time and venue of the show?
Full Council meetings are open to the public and normally on the last Thursday of each month.
In the days when councillors used to receive a repast of huge proportions after council meetings meal tickets were handed out to all present and we had one loyal and dedicated member of the public who would slip in just before the meal tickets were handed out, applaud loudly when his team spoke and then join them at lunch to ‘discuss’ the success of the encounter.
Sadly, now that there are no more meal tickets, said gentleman is no longer to be seen. Although I am convinced I tipped him once as he went ‘undercover’ disguised as a Car Guard!
I have done extensive research and my learned friends classify Full Council Meetings as a FARCE that will never tread the boards of the more professional stages.
We love you City Fathers!