Pretoria - The council in Tshwane at last passed the 2022/2023 adjustment budget on Wednesday at a dramatic ordinary sitting which saw EFF councillors staging a walkout following a fallout with speaker Mncedi Ndzwanana.
EFF regional leader Obakeng Ramabodu was unimpressed with Ndzwanana’s decision to let the council sitting at Tshwane House continue beyond 5pm, denouncing it as out of keeping with “council principle”.
Previously, Ndzwanana had adjourned a council sitting on account of a “standing principle” that council meetings ended at 5pm.
This was despite a protest from the multiparty coalition partners, which include ActionSA, the DA, FF-Plus, the IFP and ACDP, that council had never taken such a resolution.
On Wednesday, Ndzwanana found himself on a collision course with the EFF when he insisted that the adjustment budget report be entertained after 5pm.
He reasoned that deliberations on the report started before 5pm, saying they should be exhausted before he could adjourn the meeting.
Ramabodu said: “Why are you worried about the 5pm time because the 5pm time is the principle that happened in the previous council?
“What has changed now? Why do you want to do it when it suits you? Tell us if anything has changed so that we are aware and we are clued up with the dynamics.
“We want to understand and to be briefed that the dynamics have changed so that we know which direction we are taking.”
He said the DA declared both the ANC and EFF as enemy number one on national TV during the party’s elective conference at Nasrec.
“Why should I make a political environment for the DA to be conducive?
“We are not going to start selling out today and we are not going to start now.”
With repeated clashes on the matter, EFF councillors walked out of the chamber.
The sitting continued, with ANC councillors voting together with coalition partners to pass the adjustment budget with 165 votes.
The budget’s passing followed failure by coalition partners to pass it on April 14, because they were short of one vote to do so.
At least 108 votes were required to pass the adjustment budget, but the coalition only had 107 at the time.
ANC councillor Floyd Thema said the party wanted to assist in adjusting the budget from the onset.
However, he expressed concern that the budget was not catering for the needs of people living in townships.
For example, he said the budget mentioned projects affecting Lynnwood and Atterbury roads while it was mum on Buitekant Road in Soshanguve which was in a terrible condition.
Lex Middelberg, of the Republican Conference of Tshwane, maintained that the readmission of the adjustment budget was unlawful, adding that it defunded almost all city departments.
The budget was passed amid a threat by Gauteng finance MEC Jacob Mamabolo to recommend intergovernmental sanctions against the City, including withholding the City’s equitable share, should council fail to approve an adjustment budget.
Despite the warning, Mamabolo had expressed his support for the readmission of the adjustment budget.
Reacting to the sanction threats, Tshwane Mayor Cilliers Brink said: “I have responded to the MEC and brought to his attention to the fact that he is mistaken.
“In terms of the legislation, it is not peremptory for a municipal council to pass an adjustment budget.
“So the failure to do so does not constitute a failure of a legislative or executive obligation.
“But the adjustment budget is essential for good financial housekeeping to ensure that our spending is in line with our income and to prevent incurring unauthorised expenditure.”
Pretoria News