Decision to move eThekwini council sitting gets thumbs down
While opposition parties in eThekwini are boycotting a full council sitting over a decision to move it to today, the Council Speaker has provided reasons for rescheduling the event.
The meeting at the Durban International Convention Centre was meant to have taken place tomorrow.
But Council Speaker, William Mapena says more than 100 councillors had asked for the sitting to be postponed due to their unavailability tomorrow.
The decision to bring the sitting forward has drawn criticism from the DA, EFF and IFP who are all sitting today's session out.
DA eThekwini Caucus Chief Whip, Sharon Hoosen says the Speaker has broken the rules.
"At the Whip's meeting, the matter was discussed. He did not give them a choice on his suggestion. He basically dictated to them that he is changing the date of the meeting. The Whip could not agree or disagree with that at that time because the Speaker had already taken a decision to change the date of the council meeting.
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"An sms went off thereafter. If you calculate the time of the sms which was sent out was at 15h45 - this is not in line with the rules of order which gives the councillor 72-hour notice," she said.
Hoosen says members of the public have also been deprived of an opportunity to attend the meeting.
"By changing the council date a day earlier, this does not allow the public to be given sufficient notice to be informed about the date of the new council meeting hence, there will be no members of the public attending the meeting today," she said.