FRANCISTOWN: The Monday session of the full council meeting here was merely a lull before the storm as once again councillors dished out drama the following day.It came to a point where councillors could barely manage to conceal their emotions as against repeated advice, they used foul language towards one another, even catching the embattled mayor in a crossfire. Monarch South Councillor, Ignatius Moswaane, lost it and gave a mouthful to the mayor and had a back-and-forth with the council attorney as he stoutly rejected the advice he and fellow councillors were being given. Even though councillors have been told repeatedly to use 'clean' language in the chambers and when addressing each other, it does not seem to be working as before the end of the Tuesday meeting, bad language was the order of the day. After council attorney Musa Solomon gave advice to the council on the approval of the adjudication committee and Moswaane accosted him.
Solomon was addressing the issue where council was unsure if procurement entities should be permitted to sit on the adjudication committee, saying Section 11 (3b) of the Local Authority Procurement Act states that they could not be members and yet at Sub-Section 4 it says that they could be members, which according to him, is a contradiction.Solomon explained that the committee comprises 10 members, adding that the Act has clear contradiction of terms. "It gives and then on one hand it takes away," he said. He further stated that it was important not to interpret the Act literally because that would mean that members of the procurement committee "cannot sit" in the adjudication at all.He advised that what the council could do was let them be members but when matters concerning their own departments arose, then they would not sit in that particular meeting, thus there would be no violation or contradiction. He also advised councillors that they could also seek to change the clause (Section 11 (3b).
