Hopping mad Goya stood up by new cllr
Lindiwe Mozola | Thursday March 23, 2017 17:50
The new councillor for Boikago/Madiba ward, Area Gabathuse whom Goya was to introduce to his community, was absent despite having been forewarned.
In his maiden appearance in his village-cum-constituency on Tuesday, following his illness and subsequent admission in a South African hospital earlier this year, Goya had wanted to use the ocassion to formally introduce the councillor.
Visibly frustrated, Goya, who is the assistant Minister of Basic Education, said despite telling the councillor about the importance of the event in advance, it was disturbing that he did not show up.
“It is a norm in this village that the area MP officially welcomes and hands over a new councillor to the community just like we did during the 2014 national elections. I gathered all the new area councillors at the main kgotla to officially hand them over to the community.
Therefore it is disappointing for Gabathuse to not show up on this important day, disregarding our agreement,” Goya stomped the ground, ranting. He said that even though he has not recovered completely from his illness, he found it fit to do the hand-over as it is important to the community to welcome their area councillor as well as to guide him as their representative.
Apparently, Goya tried to personally communicate with Gabathuse to remind the latter of the meeting. But his efforts were fruitless as when he phoned in the morning, the phone rang unanswered. SMSes were also not responded to.
Gabathuse in the mean time cooked a snook at his superior, saying he was attending the Central District full council meeting, which was also his maiden one and he was really loath to miss such an occasion.
Pouring cold water on Goya’s remonstrations, Gabathuse said the MP’s welcome ceremony should have been done immediately after he was declared the new councillor, which did not happen.
“Moreover this was at short notice. I’d not for anything dump the full council, which is also my first as a councillor,” Gabathuse said.