Seametso defers full council meeting
Lebogang Baingapi | Wednesday June 21, 2017 17:43
The deferment, which means the sitting will now be from June 26 to July 4, follows what Seametso referred to as failure to comply with the Local Government Act.
On Monday, councillors came with the expectation that the business of the council will go ahead as scheduled. This came after the High Court dismissed with costs an application by Umbrella for Democratic Change (UDC) councillor, Kennedy Otlaadisa, who sought an interim interdict off a re-run of the recently held Kanye Administrative Authority elections.
This meant that SDC could not form an executive after the nullification of the results by the court. In the May 22 elections, Botswana Democratic Party (BDP)’s Thapelo Pelekekae defeated fellow democrat Tlhomamo Dibeela and UDC’s Otlaadisa won the vice chairperson seat.
Seametso highlighted that SDC was a legal entity established by Section 3 of the Local Government Act. He said as a chairperson, he was requested by the law to provide strategic leadership and an endeavour to ensure that the business of the council proceeded in compliance with the law.
“Section 22(7) of the Local Government Act, 2012 provides that a council shall within seven days after the election of council committees, constitute an executive committee under the chairmanship of the Mayor or Chairperson, and the executive committee shall be composed, and in the present case, it means Chairperson of the district and his deputy, sub-chairperson and vice and chairperson of the committee responsible for council finances,” Seametso explained.
He said due to the absence of the Authority’s leadership, the council will not proceed as planned and was rather deferred to a later date to enable the relevant structures of the council to regularise the non-compliance.