ANC councillors walk out in huff

Months after supporting the Nelson Mandela Bay municipality’s efforts to save money by doing away with hard copies of council agendas, ANC councillors backtracked and stormed out of a meeting on Tuesday after their documents were not delivered.

The ANC councillors on the human resources committee were, however, sent electronic copies of the agenda – in line with the committee’s decision in September.

After their walkout, the meeting collapsed as the remaining DA councillors could not form a quorum.

The ANC councillors, led by the party’s committee whip Makhi Feni, claimed they had not read the agenda and only received the e-mailed agendas.

They demanded that hard copies of the agendas be delivered to councillors’ offices and not e-mailed to them.

This flies in the face of the party’s earlier agreement with the municipality’s digital move.

At the time, the committee was told it would save R11m a year if it did away with printing the thick documents.

But on Tuesday, Feni said the ANC councillors were not properly trained to access the agendas on the municipality’s Groupwise portal.

“How can we engage on something we didn’t caucus? We are not asking anything from anyone, we are here by political mandate,” Feni said.

“We are not here because we submitted CVs, we are elected politically.

“We are saying we are going to leave this committee. We are saying you must not undermine us. We have not been given the copies, why have they not been given to us?

“All we want is for the processes we agreed upon to be followed.

“Our councillors did not receive training and their laptops are unreliable and are sent to repairs every other week.”

Speaker Jonathan Lawack said the councillors had received training when they were given laptops in 2016. They also received 3G cards with data and cellphone allowances.

Feni said he had addressed the matter with acting corporate services boss Nosipho Xhego.

Some of the critical items the committee was meant to thrash out on Tuesday included ongoing disciplinary cases and grievances, the municipal strike that took place in June, the budget performance of the department and leases.

Another meeting would have to be scheduled within seven days to discuss matters on the agenda, according to committee chair councillor Annette Lovemore.

But Feni said ANC councillors would not attend that meeting if hard-copy agendas were not delivered to them.

ANC councillor Nomonde Mhlobiso said members had raised their concerns with former corporate services boss Vuyo Zitumane.

“When we spoke to Zitu- mane about this, we told her that carrying laptop bags attracted criminals and she agreed,” Mhlobiso said.

“Why are other committees getting this agenda?”

Mhlobiso said Zitumane had committed to purchasing tablets to accommodate the councillors.

In an interview later, Mhlobiso said one of the ANC’s problems with receiving agendas electronically was that there was no way of distinguishing between what was confidential on the agenda as there was no “green paper”.

Lovemore described the walkout as unfortunate.

“The administrative decision was that this would start with HR and the mayoral committee. We must continue taking into cognisance and starting the process.

“I would have thought you could have taken the trouble to read the electronic agenda or printed it out if you wish to; you could have, as you received it in good time.”

Lovemore said the matter would be discussed at length at a portfolio committee meeting on September 4.

‘We are saying we are going to leave . . . you must not undermine us’ Makhi Feni ANC COMMITTEE WHIP