Sol Plaatje must turn streetlights on for festive season
| by Christopher Phiri, Cllr – DA Caucus Leader, Sol Plaatje Municipality |
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| Date: 28 May 2020 |
| Release: Immediate |
| The Democratic Alliance is calling on COGHSTA MEC, Bentley Vass, to urgently intervene in the ongoing chaos in Sol Plaatje municipality, which increasingly sees the institution treading a fine line between non-compliance and anarchy. In this regard, we are appealing to Vass to personally oversee tomorrow’s rescheduled council meeting to ensure that the finalization of the budget doesn’t go awry yet again.While the budget was meant to be tabled today, the virtual meeting was snubbed by Mayor Patrick Mabilo. Councillors also remained online for almost two hours due to technical issues, while Speaker Ingrid Koopman, only joined the meeting in the last few minutes.Failure to make tangible progress in terms of finalising and tabling the draft budget today are concerning, especially given the added challenges imposed by lockdown, which has impacted on public participation processes and required community inputs on the Infrastructure Development Plan (IDP).Today already marked the second occasion on which the tabling of the budget was postponed.The first postponement happened on the day before lockdown, whereby the Speaker hijacked the intended meeting to rather discuss Covid-19 matters, instead of wrapping up the municipality’s core business.Frances Baard District Municipality, Dawid Kruiper Municipality and even the Northern Cape Provincial Legislature have managed to convene successful virtual meetings yet Sol Plaatje-, which is the capital municipality of the province, seems stuck in the dark ages.Given that Sol Plaatje must submit its budget to Treasury by the end of this week in order to comply with regulations, we are appealing to Vass to attend the rescheduled meeting tomorrow, that has apparently been granted permission from the Provincial Covid-19 Command Council to proceed at the Kimberley City Hall tomorrow. It is unfortunate that things have come to this, but Sol Plaatje has become akin to a kindergarten, in need of the presence of a strict disciplinarian in order to ensure that the institution gets down to business.The DA hopes that Mayor Mabilo avails himself for the meeting tomorrow, as this should be his main prerogative. We also hope that the Speaker is on time,The tabling of the budget is essential to ensure that Sol Plaatje can continue to operate, pay salaries and provide services. The finalization of the budget affects all citizens of Kimberley and due respect should be shown to all Kimberlites. |
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