ANC bosses scold councillors for leaving meeting

ANC bosses in Calata House gave party members in Buffalo City council a tongue-lashing for abandoning council meetings and, in some instances, voting against party caucus decisions.

This followed an incident at Wednesday’s council meeting which saw only 45 councillors remain at a meeting which resolved to fire the metro’s chief financial officer Vincent Pillay.

The party has 60 councillors in the 100-member council. The DA, which has 24 councillors, left the meeting, but said the meeting was reconvened in their absence and only 45 councillors voted on the Pillay matter.

The Dispatch reported lastt Friday that the meeting did not quorate (51), but Buffalo City mayor Xola Pakati is adamant it was properly constituted and so the decision of firing Pillay, which was supported by the ANC in caucus, was a legal council resolution.

The Dispatch can reveal that ANC councillors are deeply divided on the matter, with some feeling Pillay was being made a scapegoat for the decision to set aside R10m for the 2013 Nelson Mandela memorial services and funeral, which was a council resolution.

Pillay was singled out as having flouted the Municipal Finance Management Act in a report published by public protector Busiswe Mkhwebane in 2017.

But the ANC in Calata House is not taking kindly to these acts of defiance by some BCM councillors, and summoned the caucus to the provincial headquarters on Friday.

ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi confirmed the meeting, saying: “No one is allowed to leave their posts of deployment without concluding their work, including the council meetings”.

It is not the first time that ANC divisions within the Dr W B Rubusana ANC region have been laid bare at BCM council meetings, following the conflict-ridden elective regional meeting held in August.

A decision to sponsor a Premier Soccer League club and funding of a boxing tournament saw several council meetings collapsing in 2018.

Ngcukayitobi said it was the priority of all ANC councillors “to focus on their communities and deal seriously with reported acts of corruption”.