The FF Plus has requested the Speaker of the Ekurhuleni Metro Council, Nthabiseng Tshivhenga, to take action against ward councillors and client service centre managers who prevent FF Plus councillors from attending information sessions on service delivery problems.
The request was made after an FF Plus councillor was prevented from fulfilling their obligations towards voters and residents by attending service delivery meetings.
In the past, the councillor was always welcome to attend these meetings.
Jean Kriek, FF Plus councillor for the Kempton Park area, was informed by the client service manager, Dhladhla Mbatha, on Sunday via WhatsApp that he will not be welcome at today’s (Tuesday) meeting.
It seems that DA councillors asked that only ward councillors should be allowed to attend these meetings and not proportional councillors.
According to the manager, if Kriek wants to attend the meeting, he needs to obtain permission from the ward councillors.
This decision prevents FF Plus councillors from being able to inform voters and residents of, among other things, water and electricity problems as well as planned outages in the area.
Political parties guilty of such exclusionary behaviour, at the expense of residents, need to realise that all councillors have the same rights, duties and responsibilities.
Proportional councillors have exactly the same rights as ward councillors. Such bully tactics are inexcusable and should not be tolerated.
All councillors should be empowered with the information they need to serve their communities as best they can.
