Chaotic FCC meeting adjourns for 14 days

Patricia Edwin
Staff Writer | Wednesday August 29, 2012 00:00

 

To save the session from descending into further chaos, the council settled for an adjournment so that the reports in question could be fixed.

Councillors rejected the financial report, the mayor's response, the education report, the SHHA report, the Ipelegeng report and the action sheet. They slammed the reports as half-baked and irrelevant. The civic leaders demanded that the reports be sent back to council staff who prepared them to revise them to the required standard. 

FCC mayor Ephraim Maiketso said the meeting has been adjourned for 14 days, as per standing orders. He said councillors complained that responses to their questions were not well researched. He said that they also rejected his responses.

'They have been complaining a lot. I do not know whether this is a protest,' he said. Councillor James Kgalajwe of the Botswana Democratic Party (BDP) was scathing when reached by telephone on Tuesday. 'The mayor is weak and incompetent. Even the things that were written for him to read to us, he could not in his response,' he said.Kgalajwe further said the mayor does not have the strength to chair the council.

He cried that the 14-day adjournment is costly.  'The full council is set for five days and it went to six days and on top of that it has been adjourned to return in 14 days, that is a lot of money,' he said. Kgalajwe further added that  as Botswana Movement for Democracy (BMD) councillors, there was nothing they could do because they do not have the numbers.

On the other hand, councillor Raoboy Mpuang of the BMD said councillors should refrain from looking at the issue politically. He said part of the problem could have been that the city clerk is still new and does not have a lot of information yet. He said the mayor is not the problem because it was his first full council meeting.

'It is the first time he is doing this, and we also have to learn his style of leadership,' he said. Mpuang said opposition councillors and the mayor would meet to see how they can support him. 'We are not saying that he has to run the council our way but only to offer our support and help the opposition fulfill the mandate of the council,' he stated.

Councillor Professor Tlou of the Botswana Congress Party (BCP) said it is wrong for councillors to bring agendas designed for personal gain into full council meetings. He said that the mayor is unable to control councillors. 'The mayor does not stand his ground firmly. He seems to be not armed with information to control councillors,' said Tlou. He further said it would be a good idea for parties to caucus and talk the issue through.

'I think at this stage, it is even advisable for our parties' leadership to intervene because since the beginning of this council, it has been chaotic and the conduct of councillors did get out of hand,' he said. He said although the reports brought before the council were disappointing, the way they were rejected was embarrassing.

'Just because we do not agree with something does not mean that we have to display that kind of behaviour. It was very disappointing,' he said.