Council must explain

The Democratic Alliance noted with great concern the article published in the Daily Dispatch of January 31 titled: “ANC caucus in BCM split over Pillay dismissal”. The article relates to the report on Pillay’s disciplinary hearing.

According to the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM) promotion of access to information manual, certain reports which deal with sensitive issues are classified as top secret. Such reports can only be seen by councillors. However, in this case the contents of the report were allegedly disclosed to ANC PEC members and also discussed at an ANC caucus meeting.

It is important to note that the speaker of council deferred the report without any valid reason and council has not been privy to the report. Council is the highest decision-making body in BCMM and decisions that are binding to the metro cannot be made by an outside body.

This begs the question as to why the ANC PEC and ANC caucus were privy to and in discussion about a top secret report that council has not officially received. A question of motion has been sent to the speaker of council for him to explain why this has occurred.

The fact of the matter is that there are clear factional politics at play and unfortunately the administration and the community at large will bear the brunt of this. Any decision that emanates from the ANC caucus on this matter will clearly reflect along the factional lines of the ANC. This issue is but one of many irregularities in BCMM and that is why the DA has tabled a no confidence motion in BCMM executive mayor Xola Pakati. – Anathi Majeke Cllr, Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality, via e-mail