No mayor, Speaker for Sol as council meeting collapses

SOL PLAATJE Municipality is still without a mayor and Speaker after a special council meeting that was convened on November 29 descended into chaos.

Security personnel were summoned to remove EFF councillors, while DA members staged a walkout, branding the meeting illegal and unprocedural. This turmoil followed the swearing-in of Martha Bartlett and Dipuo Peters as proportional representative (PR) councillors.

ANC councillors Pearl Mouers and Thobeka Matika resigned as PR councillors after the party identified Bartlett as the new executive mayor and Peters as the Speaker.

ACDP councillor Roddy Loff pointed out that the council had not received the resignation letters of mayor Kagisho Sonyoni and Speaker Nomizizi Shwababa.

“Technically there are no vacancies and the newly sworn-in members therefore have no locus standi,” said Loff.

He added that the ACDP was opposed to the appointment of the Deputy Minister of Small Business Development, Peters, both as a councillor and as the Speaker at Sol Plaatje Municipality.

He cited a court case where the Western Cape High Court dismissed an application by Peters against her suspension from the National Assembly without pay from January to March this year.

President Cyril Ramaphosa suspended her for breach of ethical conduct while she was the Minister of Transport.

The meeting was adjourned to circulate Sonyoni and Shwababa’s resignation letters.

DA councillor Heinrich Pieterse stated that Sol Plaatje should not be a “dumping ground for recycling ANC cadres” or to serve political agendas.

DA caucus leader Elize Niemann pointed out that the invitation for the council meeting was signed by Shwababa on November 28 although she supposedly resigned on November 18.

“Therefore the meeting is illegal,” she stated.

Sol Plaatje Service Delivery Forum councillor Dennis Pienaar added that the swearing-in ceremony was therefore unprocedural and an “illicit exercise”.

EFF councillor Pontsho Mocwana was glad that Shwababa was no longer the Speaker, stating: “We have had enough of her.”

ANC councillor Frikkie Banda believed that the matter was a “mere oversight” that could be rectified later.

ANC councillor Thapelo Nkukane said the discrepancies were not intentional and nominated GOOD councillor Elizabeth Johnson to resume the role of acting Speaker in the interim.

EFF councillor Kenneth Kock criticised the municipal manager for allowing ill-discipline to reign in the council chambers and for failing to call councillors to order.

DA councillor Chris Phiri noted that if order was not instilled in the house, “chaos would prevail”, before opposition members staged a walkout.

“Johnson is eager to be appointed as the acting Speaker but this meeting is null and void,” he pointed out.

ANC chief whip Martin White had to take control of the meeting as councillors did not recognise municipal manager Thapelo Matlala as the presiding officer.

“The meeting needs to be postponed. In a week’s time everyone will be in a festive mood.”

ANC councillor Isaac Ruiter called on councillors not to “make a mockery” of the house and to rather be sober-minded and vote in an acting Speaker.

The meeting was postponed until December 3.