Speaking at the last monthly council meeting, the DA’s Jaco Terblanche made this charge in regard to two agenda items which, he said, had been brought before council for noting and approval after the fact, not having been sent to the relevant oversight committees for proper interrogation.
According to the Separation of Powers system of government, items must serve before the committees responsible for oversight of municipal departments for debate, before appearing on the agenda of the full council with recommendations.
Terblanche said bad planning – a common mantra of the DA – allowed two important items to appear on the council agenda, having skipped the oversight stage.
The first sought council approval for the Final Built Environment Performance Plan (BEPP) to be submitted to the National Treasury and the second was an item discussing the Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) between council and the National Treasury on the Urban Network Strategy.
“It is imperative that the metro follows its own rules and practices in every instance. Any potential irregularities in the BEPP could be picked up and reported when the item goes back to oversight.
“However, the metro came very close to losing the much-needed Urban Network Strategy grant from the Treasury.”
Terblanche said it was vital that the opposition was given its rightful opportunity to scrutinise the MoU again to ensure that there were no irregularities in the contract, as this could have serious consequences for residents.
According to Terblanche, the DA would be referring these specific examples of a broader problem in the running of council to the MEC for Local Government to investigate.
“The tendency of the majority party to ignore due process could have massive consequences and the DA would not condone or be part of such trangressions,” said Terblanche. – @IschkeBoksburg
