Outcry as DA barred from city hall
Drama unfolded at the Durban city hall on Tuesday when the DA was prevented from holding a media briefing on several “damning” reports on fraud and corruption conducted by the city’s integrity and investigation unit.
Just before the start of the briefing at the DA’s caucus room‚ party leaders were informed by security managers they had received an instruction from the mayor’s parlour that they were not allowed to hold their meeting there‚ and if they continued, they would be forcibly removed.
Despite frantic calls by DA eThekwini caucus leader Nicole Graham to a security manager and the city’s head of security, Dumisani Bhengu, to resolve the impasse, security personnel would not budge and denied members of the media access to the city hall.
Durban metro police were also called in to physically remove DA members and journalists already inside the venue.
A visibly upset Graham told journalists outside that the incident was concerning as they had booked the venue for the media briefing.
DA councillor Heinz de Boer accused the city of using apartheid-style tactics to suppress the opposition.
“They tried to use the security forces to basically put down [the] political opposition on a flimsy pretext that the room was not correctly booked,” he said.
“It smacks of the kind of governance that we have within eThekwini at the moment.”
No officials were on hand to comment and the municipality did not immediately respond to a request for comment. –