Mayoral ban shocks councilors

ONALENNA MODIKWA
Staff Writer | Friday November 26, 2010 00:00

The deputy mayor, Batlhaedi Mponwane, who chaired the proceedings, announced that the mayor had used his powers to make the order and that therefore the council could not correct nor confirm the minutes of the August session.

This was despite the minutes being an item on the agenda of the day. The deputy mayor would not even allow councillors to discuss the controversial order, including a councillor who wanted to use a standing order for the purpose.

In a subsequent interview, the deputy mayor explained during an interview that the minutes were deferred in accordance with a resolution of a management meeting held the previous day.

'We agreed in the meeting of the office of the mayor and that of the town clerk before the mayor's departure that the minutes should be deferred,' Mponwane said. He said the mayor has such powers and that the issue cannot even be debated. He said the decision to defer the minutes was made because of some issues that were discovered in those minutes. Upon his return, the mayor would decide whether or not to convene a special full council meeting to discuss the minutes.

Meanwhile, the councillor who had attempted to bypass the Mayoral Order by means of a Standing Order, Godffrey Mbaiwa, has characterised the situation as a charade.

In an interview with Mmegi, Mbaiwa said the Standing Order he wanted to quote dictated that notice of a full council meeting should be availed three weeks in advance, while the agenda should be circulated a week in advance.

'The agenda today contains the minutes in question,' he said. 'It surprises us to be told that we cannot discuss them. It is clear that our council does not run in terms of Standing Orders but on personal whims. The session is illegal because the Standing Order has been flouted.'

According to Councillor Mbaiwa, incidents such as the controversial Mayoral ban were the reason councillors often walked out in protest at some councils. 'We have been in possession of the agenda long enough for the mayor to have made the necessary corrections,' he said.

Councillor Molefhe Molatlhegi, who had also unsuccessfully attempted to question the procedure, said the minutes were not for the chairman of the meeting but for the council. 'We wonder what personal issues the minutes contain,' Molatlhegi said.

'We even wonder whether the council will be made to incur costs through a special full council, yet we are always preaching lack of funds.'

It is regrettable that no reference to any Standing Order empowering the mayor to disrupt the agenda in such a fashion was even made. 'Today's full council meeting is illegal because Standing Orders were not followed,' said Councillor Molatlhegi.

The minutes in question contain councillors' expressed disappointment with the manner in which the mayor had addressed them in a speech. The councillors complained that if the mayor had a problem with them, he might have addressed them in private rather than embarrass them in public.

The councillors also criticised the mayor's lack of consultation. The minutes quote the mayor, on the other hand, as saying he has the privilege and mandate to do as he wishes without necessarily having to consult the councillors.

The minutes also quote him asking his fellow councillors to let him be and not to meddle in his business.