ANC Continues to dodge investigations of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee
The opposition parties voted for the acceptance of a motion of no confidence in the Speaker of Govan Mbeki Municipality. This motion was carried and the ANC used everything in its power not to adhere to the acceptance of the motion. A week later the EFF and ATM councillors backtracked on their motion and the motion that was already voted on and accepted was withdrawn.
It is now also alleged that there are deliberate efforts to undermine the functionality of Section 79 committees. These committees play an important role in the oversight of this municipality.
Cllr Ciska Jordaan, MAPC chairperson released the following statement to the Bulletin regarding the position of the Democratic Alliance (DA) in this regard.
Following the removal of the Speaker via a motion of no confidence which served in the council on the 31st March 2022, the Democratic Alliance has been holding to our position and refusing to acknowledge the former speaker as the chairperson of the council and therefore does not attend any meetings which are called illegally, without the election of a speaker following the adopted motion.
However, on the 28th of April 2022, the ANC Executive Mayor, Nhlakanipho Zuma, made a public statement indicating his intention to submit a motion for the removal of the Chairperson of MPAC for not attending this illegal meeting.
A blatant and open submission to the public of his refusal to cooperate with, and his non-attendance to the last two meetings of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee (21 and 29 April 2022) only strengthens the suspicion of the DA that the ANC and its captured administration have been working against the efforts of the committee to investigate and do oversight over the municipality’s finances since its inception.
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To date, it has been 5 months since the council resolved to appoint the committee with a secretary along with the election of its chairperson. Following several queries by the chairperson, this process is yet to be completed, adding to the frustrations of the Chairperson. In addition, responses from the administration following requests for information and evidence pertaining to irregular, fruitless and wasteful expenditure would arrive weeks after the requests have been made.
At a meeting which was earmarked to be held on the 29th of April 2022, the non-attendance of 5 ANC councillors along with the Executive Mayor, his MMCs and several directors of the municipality painted a picture of the apparent intention of the ANC to capture the biased administration of this municipality and to boycott the efforts of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee to ensure that money meant for the people, is spent on the people.
This leads one to believe that the ANC Executive Mayor and his cronies continue to dodge the investigations and the ability of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee to recover the people’s money and therefore chooses to use the political atmosphere of the council as a scapegoat.
The ANC evidently underestimates the determination and resilience of the official opposition. We do not waver at threats of removal from positions, like the greedy ANC. Where the DA is elected to serve, we remain committed to being transparent and setting a standard of excellence in serving the people of Govan Mbeki.
With this in mind, the Chairperson has written to party whips to request their assistance in encouraging members of various political parties to ensure attendance and will report the difficulties experienced in ensuring the functionality of MPAC to the provincial treasury and the Auditor General.
