Speaker hopes for third time lucky
George Council will attempt to hold another e-meeting tomorrow at 09:00. This will be Speaker Gerrit Pretorius's third attempt to get the councillors together in a virtual space since 28 May, when they barely managed to table the draft budget and integrated development plan (IDP) before Council was left without a quorum.
A total of 27 councillors are needed to legally hold a meeting. With only 24 DA councillors and two from the opposition (ACDP and FF Plus) willing to attend meetings, Council is one short of a quorum. By-elections for the four previously "DA wards" had been postponed more than once due to the Covid-19 lockdown. Provincial spokesperson for the Independent Electoral Commission, Courtney Sampson, confirmed that the electoral court granted permission for the postponement of all four by-elections from 15 July to 18 November. Until such time and without the support of other opposition parties, any attempt to hold a council meeting remains an uphill battle.
The purpose of Friday's special council meeting is to, among other things, discuss the supplementary budget. "We have to facilitate the R1-million that the state has given us for food parcels during the Covid-19 lockdown period which needs to be administered before 30 June," said Pretorius. "Unfortunately, if it is not approved, we will forfeit the funds. We expect all councillors to attend the meeting, which is one of the reasons why they are councillors."