Pretoria - Tshwane councillors who opt to participate virtually during sittings came under fire yesterday for their physical absence in council, and their fitness to hold office was also questioned.
The criticism was made on the back of the death of utility services MMC Phillip Nel, who took part in council proceedings virtually after he fell ill. Nel died last week.
MMC for human settlements and housing Abel Tau, a member of ActionSA, warned against the tendency by councillors to abuse their privileges by always wanting to work remotely.
“I have noticed that there are councillors who are continually granted permission to attend on Microsoft teams. So, one of the prerequisites to attend on teams apparently is that you submit a valid sick note.
“That tells me that there are councillors who are terminally ill and there are some councillors who are not doing anything about it. If someone consecutively sends a sick note to council it means they are terminally ill so the council must come in and say are these guys fit to do their work?
“What kind of work are they doing if they can’t come to council every single day, while they are busy attending on teams? Therefore we need better people who can come here and do their work,” Tau said.
He proposed that a committee be formed to look into the fitness of these councillors to hold office.
This was during an ordinary council meeting, where parties were expected to debate the State of the Capital Address delivered by mayor Randall Williams last week.
However, for the better part of the meeting questions were raised as to whether councillors should be allowed to attend online or in person.
EFF leader Obakeng Ramabodu called for participants on the online platform to be rejected until a proper reasoning was provided.
“If we abuse these processes because of Covid-19 we risk being councillors who are going to attend MS teams for the whole 12 months and without visiting communities.
It means these councillors are not even doing community work,” he said.
Deputy chief whip Katlego Makgaleng said the discussion on hybrid meetings was made during a multiparty whippery session.
“We agreed that since the establishment of the review of (the council rules book) we will also need to re-check how the hybrid meetings are included and how people can apply for the online meetings.
“We cannot be left behind on technology,” he said.
The ANC’s Aaron Maluleka said the multiparty whippery was created for the purpose of airing what Tau spoke about.
“The purpose of those meetings is to look into every issue on its merits so that we bring finality to it,” he said.
He urged councillors to be mindful of emergencies that might force them to attend meetings online.
“A (virtual) link is a proper platform for you to participate in council. The importance of being in council cannot be overemphasised, but the point should go to the engineering room (whippery meetings) where all of us can find each other and listen to each other without even bringing in politics,” Maluleka said.
At the time of going to print, councillors were yet to debate the State of the Capital Address. However, ANC caucus spokesperson Joel Masilela told the Pretoria News that the DA had failed to uphold its previous service delivery commitments.
Pretoria News