Budget vote ends in hostage drama
Police called in after heated meeting turns hostile in Oudtshoorn
MANAGEMENT at the embattled Oudtshoorn municipality have vowed that service delivery and essential services will continue in the Klein Karoo town despite the town council’s failure to approve its budget for the new financial year.
During a rowdy and heated council meeting on Tuesday night, residents of the town turned hostile when the council failed to approve the budget.
Chaos erupted after the DA voted against the budget while ANC councillors abstained.
In the end only mayor Gordon April, his deputy, Vlancio Donson, and Speaker John Stoffels voted. This sparked an hour-long hostage drama which saw police being called in as residents threatened violence.
Municipalities had until the end of last month to approve their budgets. Failure to do so has a ripple effect which could see the provincial government intervene.
Yesterday, some residents experienced problems while trying to buy pre-paid electricity, DA councillor Chris MacPherson said. “Customers who wanted to buy electricity could not do so this morning because the computers had to be changed. The pricing system for rates and taxes had already been set to run on the new budget and this had to be reset back to the old amounts, because the budget was not approved.”
Explaining why the DA voted against the budget, MacPherson said proper processes, including public participation processes, were not followed.
“The budget was drawn up by a consultant prior to the IDP being finalised. The IDP informs the budget, not the other way around. It was not a people-driven budget, it was an individual driven budget,” he said.
Acting municipal manager Ronnie Lottering said they had not expected major disruptions due to the budget not being passed, adding they will attempt to reconvene council this afternoon to approve the budget. “Failing to approve the budget means that council cannot fulfil its obligation of collected rates and other tariffs.”
He added that the mayor would have to notify Local Government MEC Anton Bredell about the budget not being approved.
DA caucus leader Wessie van der Westhuizen said he laid charges after receiving death threats during the council meeting. “I’ve previously laid charges against the same person, this time around he told me straight to my face in gangster slang: ‘I’ve received an order from the numbers to kill you and I will kill you’,” he said.
The ANC in the Western Cape said without a proper budget in place, the municipality now risks drifting off into a gorge of mismanagement and other problems.
“In turn, that may mean residents will not get the best possible service delivery and that some services may even come to a temporary stop,” Western Cape ANC local government spokesman Richard Dyantyi said.
Bredell expressed his concern about continued instability in the Oudtshoorn council, saying he had written to the municipality requesting formal confirmation as to the status of the municipality’s budget for the 2015/2016 financial year.
The municipality is ruled by the ANC in alliance with the National People’s Party and Independent Civic Organisation of SA.