Public meeting time altered at last minute

THERE is an old saying that goes: “There are only two certainties in life that are faced by all human beings – death and taxes”. Another certainty has been added since the dawn of democracy: sloth and incompetence on the part of the ruling party.

As councillors in the metro, we all encounter this daily. The latest example has been the disastrous arrangements regarding the public participation process surrounding the Budget and Integrated Development Plan (IDP).

Council has approved the programme of consultative meeting dates and this was subsequently extensively advertised in the press. The ward councillors of the wards involved in the first round of public meetings went to great lengths also to publicise e the details of the meetings to their residents.

The meetings were scheduled for Thursday May 7 from 3pm to 6pm, with the object of having documents and information available during that time so residents could interact with the councillors and officials in their own time. On the day of the meetings, councillors received an e-mail at 1.34pm that the starting times of the meetings had been changed to 6pm.

There was no realistic way that the councillors could inform the residents of this change and the DA took a decision to withdraw from that particular round of public participation meetings and rather re-set proper meetings at a properly determined date and time.

One has to take a step back and reflect on the disrespectful attitude displayed by the ruling party towards the residents of this metro. Was this an attempt to comply with regulations to hold these public participation sessions, but at the same time prevent public discourse on the woefully inadequate budget and IDP?

Was it purely incompetence in making and not adhering to arrangements, or a combination of both? Whichever of the suspected reasons, the fact remains that our residents will have to pay for another expensive advertising campaign and hope they be given a chance to participate in their city’s budgetary process as promulgated by law.

The DA has, at its core, a credo of competence, compliance and quality people, fit for purpose doing the job they are employed to do. Incompetence is not tolerated and our standards are set extremely high.

We will not disrespect our residents as has just been witnessed and our standards are such that the highest levels of performance expected from all are not negotiable.

Chris Roberts, DA councillor and spokesman on economic development, tourism and

agriculture, NMBM