Committee meeting descends into chaos

A PARLIAMENTARY meeting about the state of South Africa’s troubled municipalities ended in chaos yesterday due to political rivalry.

The ANC and opposition parties on the portfolio committee on cooperative governance locked horns in a three-hour power play that nearly saw the meeting shut down.

The tone was set early on when IFP MP Mkhuleko Hlengwa and ANC MP Amos Masondo both received four votes to act as chairman of the committee while regular chairman Richard Mdakane attended a rules committee meeting.

The committee was due to interrogate issues in the Madibeng (North West) and Mogalakwena (Limpopo) municipalities which have both been beset by leadership and financial troubles and service delivery protests.

Unable to break the stalemate, the ANC proposed that the meeting be collapsed, sending a large delegation of at least 15 officials from the Madibeng municipality, the North West provincial government and the national government packing. Hlengwa then withdrew his nomination in the interests of saving time and taxpayers’ money.

It also emerged that no one from Mogalakwena or the Limpopo government was at the meeting.

However, the opposition then called for ANC MP and former Madibeng municipal manager Phil Mapulane to recuse himself.

DA MP Kevin Mileham said Mapulane, who had been municipal manager between 2007 and 2009, was specifically mentioned in the presentation by the municipality.

North West MEC for Local Government and Traditional Affairs Collen Maine finally made his presentation.