Speaker hits back at DA
Council Speaker Yandiswa Vara has responded to criticism from the DA over the election of ward committees in Makana, saying she was disappointed by the fact that the party had decided to address the matter in the media. But the DA has accused her of delaying tactics.
In her response to the criticism this week, Vara said she has noted the enquiry and confirmed that she had met with the party to iron out some of the issues they raised.
Vara says she has met with DA Caucus Leaders and informed them that since the complaint had been aimed at her directly as the Speaker, it would not be prudent for her to be both a player and a referee in the matter.
“The DA were informed that I propose to let the matter go to Council with the recommen- dation for Council to appoint an ad hoc committee to look into the allegations against my office,” she said.
Vara then voiced her disappointment with the party's decision to address the matter through the media.
“I would also like to express my disappointment with the DA leaders in taking an internal matter to the media before it has been dealt with internally,” she said.
Vara said the DA had proven to be disloyal to the very same Council they are currently serving in.
“As they are part of the Makana Council, they have shown themselves to be disloyal to the Council they represent by not first exhausting internal remedies. The report of the ward committee elections is still to be furnished to Council and it is to be expected that any councillor register any com- plaint or query the processes in a formal manner,” she said.
Vara also said the allegations of the DA are yet to be tested.
“The allegations of the DA still remain allegations until such time that they are properly considered by the Full Council,” she said.
Responding to Vara’s criticism about raising the matter in the media DA caucus leader Mlindi Nhanha said as the DA in Makana they were very happy to disappoint the Speaker.
“We would be very worried if we were not disappointing her, because we would know that we are not doing our work. The fact that the Speaker is disappointed about how we are conducting our business points to one direction and one direction alone, that we are doing our work,” he said.
Nhanha also made it very clear that they don’t owe the Council any loyalty.
“We don’t owe our allegiance or loyalty to Council, we owe our allegiance and loyalty to the electorate, to the ordinary people, the people who voted us into Council. For her to say we are disloyal to Council actually shows how limited some people understand Council to work, so we are happy to be disloyal to Council for as long as we remain loyal to the people who voted us into office.”
About the internal processes that Vara suggested needed to be followed, Nhanha said they had tried to utilise those processes to no avail. He said they had written a letter to Vara and gave her 48 hours to respond but she did not respond within that time period.
Nhanha said she had responded late and asked for 14 days before she could respond to their letter.
“We knew it was a delaying tactic. She wanted to first finish the elections of the ward committees before coming back and responding to us. In the letter we had very clear points that she needed to respond to,” he said.
Nhanha said after 14 days which ended last Friday, 11 November we were called into her office for a meeting that probably lasted less than 10 to 15 minutes.
“She said to us that because she is a person accused in the matter she has decided to take the matter to Council for Council to set up a committee that would then investigate the matter and she would defend herself and that committee would report back to Council.
“We told her that we disagree with her because this is just another delaying tactic. When is the next Council meeting? It's some time early next year,” he said.
Nhanha said this means that this matter will only go to Council then.
“The ward committees in the meantime will be legitimised and they will be working and that committee (elected by Council) will take another six months before it comes back to Council,” he said.
Nhanha said Vara was merely using delaying tactics to avoid dealing with the matter head on.
“We told the Speaker that we are not accepting what she is saying as a proposal. We told her that we are reserving our right and we are weighing our options because we think this is a straightforward matter that she needs to attend to.
“She has to nullify these results and we can start talking,” he said.