FCC reverts to old committees

Patricia Edwin | Wednesday June 18, 2014 06:59

 

While not saying who misled them, Ndove said the council has decided to revert to the old system of committees. This was a system where councillors would sit on many committees. But a reshuffle was done after Makgato-Malesu had announced in the council chambers that there would no longer be Liquor and Trade Committees.  

At a recent past special full council meeting, Ndove proposed that the council revert to the old system and the motion was adopted. 

Ndove later told Mmegi that the reason the council reverted to the old system was because they were initially misled. 

“It was because we had heard that the Liquor and Trader committees were coming to an end and we decided that it would be unfair on other councillors.  So we reshuffled so that councillors would have equal participation in committee responsibilities,” he said. 

He added that the committees were strong such that if they were no longer there, there would be too much imbalance as some committees sat more frequently than others.  “So we reshuffled but we later realised that it was not working which is why we decided to go back to the old system,” said Ndove, the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) councillor.  Though the proposal was adopted, some councillors, especially from the opposition complained that it was not favourable to all. 

In the last council meeting former mayor and Botswana Congress Party (BCP) councillor for Francistown Central, Ephraim Maiketso said that other councillors are rarely in the council because they do not have committee responsibilities while others were heavily engaged.  “This whole thing is like a joke because they make changes that suit them. We do not know why there is so much noise about these committees,” he said. 

In an interview after the council meeting, Councillor Professor Lazarus Tlou, also of the BCP, said that the committees were fine and that the Standing Orders of the council state that they can be changed if they hinder council work, or if the term of the councillor has come to an end, or if there are issues of poor performance. 

“But what I have seen here is that ours are just changed any time they do not fit certain people’s aspirations. It is mostly about how much money one can make from sitting in those committees,” said Tlou. 

Tlou said that the committees were fixed and he is of the view that the ruling party is just using numbers to get what they want. In the end they always defeat the minority though what they are doing is not benefiting the public in any way. 

“The voices that were against the reshuffling were few it is not that everyone was in agreement at the time of the reshuffling, but the majority won. I am now wondering why at the District Committee we were told to review since our political terms are even about to come to an end,” he added. 

He said that reviews and reshuffles interfere with the work done by councillors in committees.  

“When a councillor is busy trying to draft the mandate of the committee, there is a reshuffle or a review and the councillor is moved,” complained Tlou. 

Specially elected councillor Ford Moiteela, who is also the BDP regional chairperson, said that there was need for the committees to be reshuffled since the Liquor and Trade committees were coming to an end. 

“The Minister of Trade and Industry (Makgato-Malesu) had agreed that they would try to extend for the sake of the councillors who were members of those committees, but when that did not happen we had to reshuffle,” he said.  He dismissed the suggestion that the BDP uses their numbers to favour themselves.  

“At the time of the reshuffle even councillors who were not in the BDP were in agreement,” he said.