Civics unite to fight city gag order
Rights groups to decide legal action against by-law change
MORE than 20 civil rights groups will meet next week to discuss possible legal action in opposing a city by-law amendment that was passed at the final eThekwini council meeting on Wednesday.
Civil rights activists and opposition parties have slammed the amendment to the Rules of Order which they said gave the city the power to restrict public and media access to council meetings, prevent media from recording in meetings, as well as preventing councillors from posting council decisions while a meeting was under way.
Yesterday, a member of the Active Citizens Movement and honorary research fellow at UKZN School of Law, Professor Yousuf Vawda, described the amendment as a “bad decision” by the council in terms of both democracy and law, adding that citizens’ rights to receive information was a founding principle of the constitution.
“More than 21 organisations will be meeting next weekend and we will also be consulting lawyers on how to proceed,” said Vawda.
Commenting on the amendment, he said: “It has given Exco wide powers to exclude the public, so a small group will be taking far-reaching decisions. It is undemocratic.”
He said that should any member of the public, opposition party member or civil rights activist get access to documents from a closed meeting, these could not be made public in any way.
“The whole idea of local government is that the people participate, but we are moving backwards.
“We are witnessing a very interesting climate with allegations of state capture, while we also have allegations of mismanagement and problematic service delivery by the municipality. It suggests that something big is being hidden here.
“They (the municipality) are not acting in the interests of the people of this city, but rather in the interests of a small group,” said Vawda.
While the amendment was being passed, civil rights activists outside the venue were not allowed inside, with council Speaker William Mapena from the ANC saying there was not enough seating.
Rule 7 of the principal bylaw reads: “The council or committee of the council may not (for any reason) exclude the public, including the media, when considering, voting or noting any of the following matters: a) a draft by-law tabled by the council”.
DA councillor Nicole Graham described the amendment as “fundamentally undemocratic and in parts, unconstitutional”, saying the Speaker would not allow for any debate on the item even though “there is not a single rule in the existing by-law which allowed him to shut down debate”.
Graham said the most concerning amendment allowed eThekwini’s exco meetings to be closed to the public and media “where it is reasonable to do so. This allows the mayor to decide to close meetings on a whim,” she said.
IFP councillor Mduduzi Nkosi said: “There is no need for this amendment, we voted against it and we will continue to say it is wrong. With regard to councillors commenting on social networks, there is a code of conduct which can deal with this.”
eThekwini Municipality has defended the amendment, with head of communications, Tozi Mthethwa, saying that while legislation stated a municipal council must open its meetings to the public, there was legislation to allow meetings to be closed to the public subject to the nature of the issues being discussed.
The EFF had not commented at the time of going to press.