I strongly condemn the criminal behaviour of councillors, who today, sought to derail the important work of delivering services to the people of Johannesburg by assaulting public representatives and collapsing council.

For most of the day, opposition councillors effectively held the City and its people to ransom by preventing the due election of the Chair of Chairs and Chairpersons of Section 79 Committees. These committees are crucial in holding the Executive to account, on behalf of the people of Johannesburg - something these two organisations have shown over and over to have little regard for.

The business of Council, but most importantly, the business of the more than 5 million residents of the City was disrupted and ultimately halted owing to a request by the ANC to hold a secret ballot for these positions.

It is important to note that in terms of the Council’s Rules, it is the Speaker’s prerogative to determine how voting may be conducted. Notwithstanding this discretion, the Speaker of Council, Cllr Vasco da Gama allowed councillors to vote on whether the elections could be conducted on the basis of a secret ballot or a simple, transparent show of hands.

However, legislature officials were disrupted from concluding the count as the outcome was in favour of the Multi-Party Coalition Government.

Ignoring this democratic outcome, and fearing the imminent results of the chairperson elections, opposition councillors insisted on being destructive in order to collapse council. What is of more concern is the criminal and violent behaviour of mainly ANC and EFF councillors who intimidated officials, aggressively confronted the Speaker and myself, and also went so far as to assault councillors. I strongly condemn this criminal conduct with the contempt it deserves.

We will review the footage to identify culprits who were involved in the assaults and lay criminal charges. We will also formally escalate this matter to the MEC, calling for him to suspend or dismiss those councillors who were involved in criminal and violent conduct.

Council will reconvene on Tuesday, 18 January 2022 so that we continue with the process of electing the Chair of Chairs and the Chairpersons of Section 79 Committees. The Speaker and I will ensure that the legislature will have taken all necessary steps to protect those councillors who want to fulfil the promises they made to residents.

I want to take this opportunity to assure the residents of Johannesburg that the Multi-party Government will continue to defend democracy and protect the rights of public representatives to serve their communities. We are committed to rolling out the very best service delivery as encapsulated in the Golden Start and will not be deterred from serving our City’s residents.
 
Issued by:
Cllr Mpho Phalatse
Executive Mayor
City of Johannesburg
 
For media queries, please contact:
Olebogeng Molatlhwa
Assistant Director: Mayoral Communications
Private Office of the Executive Mayor
OlebogengMola@joburg.org.za
084 371 3243

14/01/2021