The Democratic Alliance (DA) in eThekwini has written to the Speaker of Council, Councillor Weziwe Thusi, asking her to clarify how she believes provisions of the law were complied with during Friday’s Budget Meeting.
The meeting- which was held online using Microsoft Teams- turned into chaos when I was repeatedly muted during my speaking time and thus unable to deliver our response to the tabled budget.
Despite being repeatedly asked to address the issue, Speaker Thusi was forced to concede that she had no control over the system being used and any Councillor was able to mute any other Councillor if they were on the municipality’s Outlook system. The Speaker then moved onto another Councillor- the IFP’s Mdu Nkosi- and did not resolve the silencing of the DA.
During this time, the live feed of the Council Meeting was removed from Facebook. This live feed was key to the lawfulness of the meeting as section 20(2)(b) makes it compulsory for meetings where a budget is tabled to be open to the public.
When questioned, Speaker Thusi clearly indicated that this was done purposefully. It is simply not lawful to block the public from witnessing a debate around the municipality’s budget because it has become embarrassing or shambolic.
The DA’s own Live response, which was streamed the following day on Councillor Nicole Graham’s Facebook page, clearly showed a fight back against the undemocratic and unruly behaviour of the ANC. It garnered 21000 views on Facebook and 2200 on Twitter, whilst the municipality’s broadcast of the council meeting only received 15000 views.
The DA has also taken legal advice and are actively looking at legal options with regard to this meeting, pending the response from Speaker Thusi. Processes, principles and the law are the bedrock of democracy and will not be discarded on our watch.