The two agenda items that were tabled, at the meeting held earlier today, were the metro’s budget plans for the next three years as well as its draft integrated development plan. The plan sets out the municipality’s goals and development strategies which need to be aligned with the municipality’s available resources . According to the Democratic Alliance in the Free State’s Hardie Viviers, who is also the party’s caucus leader at the municipality, what angered the party with regards to the alleged move pulled by the ANC, during council, is that while they may have received the notice of the meeting on time (48 hours prior to the meeting), the documentation, which was meant to accompany the notice of meeting, was not submitted on time. This is a violation of the Standing Rules and Orders of Council. Viviers refers to Rule 6.3 of these rules, which states that all city managers must fully comply with the issuing of the relevant notice, annexures and documentation of the meetings to enable the council members to prepare adequately.

“We only received the relevant documentation on Wednesday evening at around 12:00 am, which is still within the specified time frame, but all the documentation that should have formed part of what is being tabled here was not a part of the documentation that was sent through to us. That documentation was only sent to us at a later stage, so in essence, they did not comply with Rule 6.3,” Viviers said.

OFM News earlier reported that the Economic Freedom Fighter’s members of council, owing to the Municipality’s failure to provide the required documents on time, deliberately stayed away from today’s special council meeting. Meanwhile, the municipality’s spokesperson, Qondile Khedama, had earlier said that while the discussions on the items may be postponed, it was imperative that they are tabled today. Viviers, said that this was a trick on part of the company to make sure that the municipality remains compliant as per regulations set out in the Municipal Financial Management Act and Treasury, which state that all municipal budgets must be tabled before the relevant councils 90 days before the start of the new financial year, which is on 1 July annually. In Mangaung’s case, today was the last date as per these regulations to ensure that the above-mentioned items were tabled as today marks exactly 90 days before the start of the 2019/20 financial year. Meanwhile, OFM News sent questions to Khedama earlier this afternoon. Khedama’s responses on allegations made by the opposition parties and whether or not the municipality rushed the proceedings to ensure compliance will form part of a follow-up article on the matter.

OFM News