City Mayor suspended
City Mayor asked to walk out of full Council sitting.
CITY Mayor Elphas Mbatha was forced to vacate Council Chambers on Tuesday evening after facing disciplinary action.
An unopposed motion was passed before formal Council proceedings could get underway, when Chief Whip Manie Lourens proposed for the removal or the suspension of a member in accordance with the Code of Conduct for Councillors and the Council Standing Orders.
Lourens referred to the mayor’s ‘media and public statements that brought the City into disrepute by implying failure to deliver services’.The mayor was then requested by Speaker Mduduzi Mhlongo to excuse himself from the Council meeting.
There was no jeering or clapping and Councillors looked away as Mbatha had no option but to make a dignified exit in front of a packed public gallery after he was suspended from the full sitting by majority members of Council.
While no Councillors joined the mayor’s departure, a large number of people in the unusually packed public gallery walked out in sympathy.
Ironically, the main agenda item on resumption concerned the City’s budget, which the mayor oversees as Chairman of the Finance Portfolio Committee (FPC).
ANC Councillors had reportedly walked out of a FPC meeting presided by the mayor last week.
‘As soon as the mayor stepped in and took his seat, they stood up and left,’ said Cllr DA Nxumalo.
The meeting was then cancelled. Instead of concentrating on service delivery, it is being compromised.
‘It was an attempt to boycott every meeting under the mayor’s chairmanship,’ he said.
The Exco meeting scheduled for Tuesday morning, which is also chaired by the mayor, did not take place.
Nxumalo questioned whether the expelling of the mayor during Tuesday’s proceedings would have legal repercussions.
‘Is this procedural? Councillors are in the dark because this was not on the agenda.
‘According to the rules of natural justice, before you take a decision, you must give the respective person an opportunity to state their case.
‘This will cause a huge problem if it goes to court,’ said Nxumalo.
Ordinary
Meanwhile, the City on Wednesday said the mayor’s suspension in a Council meeting was ‘nothing out of the ordinary.’
‘It must be noted that the mayor was only suspended for this particular meeting only.
The reported verbal and media utterances by the mayor about the non-delivery of the City were deemed not accurate and unnecessary by the Council.
The City would like to assure the public that Cllr Mbatha is still the Mayor,’ said City Communication Manager Mdu Ncalane.
Referring to the mayor’s comments last week that there had been ‘interference’ with his security and protection guards, Ncalane said an internal enquiry was underway.
‘The City has a duty to provide the Mayor, Deputy Mayor and Speaker with necessary protection as prescribed in the law. We view these allegations seriously and it is concerning.
‘At this stage we have no evidence to prove the reported allegations,’ Ncalane said.
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