Subcouncils reconstitute - Part 1

3 Comments

• Posted by ubuntu:1 year ago

  

  Do not repeat the same mistakes of Rhodesian Prime Minister Ian Smith who like yourself considered himself to be progressive but he tried every trick in the trade to prevent majority rule. I am also concerned that Cape Town will fall behind in terms of economic development as the rest of the country has already moved on from the infant stages that the Cape still seems stuck into. You must remember also that you cannot have a Republic of Cape Town mindset as the baaskop laager mentality has always proven to be a dead end as history has shown.

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• Posted by Helen:1 year ago

  

  Dear Ubuntu<br><br>
  Thank you for being forthright about your point of view.When it comes to us taking away sub-councils from the ANC, you should note the following facts.<br><br>1) The agreement with Minister Mufamadi covered the previous council as constituted after the elections up until the floor-crossing. After the floor-crossing, the council is reconstituted, and a new set of rules apply for the establishment of sub-councils. The ANC changed the law to allow this. The Municipal Structures Act says that after an election, sub-councils have to be made up of the same ratio of proportional representative (PR) councillors as the ward councillors included in a sub-council. So if there are 5 wards in a sub-council, and 3 of the ward councillors are DA, 1 ID, and 1 ANC, then there has to be 3 DA, 1 ID and 1 ANC PR councillor as well. However, the ANC introduced a new rule in the Municipal Structures Act which says that after a floor-crossing, PR councillors can be distributed much more freely around sub-councils. This enabled the ANC in 2002 to take 16 sub-councils held by the DA and re-arrange them into 20 all held by the ANC.<br><br>2) The ANC therefore needs to learn that when it makes laws, it must make these laws not simply to benefit itself in the short-term, but make them in such a way that when it is not in power, it will also be protected. Perhaps the ANC will now consider scrapping this law, and hopefully floor-crossing in its current form as well.The same applies with the Executive Mayoral system – the ANC introduced the Executive Mayoral system when they were in power. They were happy with it. But when they lost they wanted the Executive Committee system back. MEC Dyantyi tried to bring that system back in an effort to unseat the Multi-Party Government. The ANC also attacked the DA because we had stated our preference for the Executive Committee System ahead of the elections. However, this would have cost us our position. Our number 1 mandate from the voters is to provide an alternative to the ANC, and this must take precedence over the issue of the Executive Mayoral system versus the Executive Committee system. Finally, I would like to point out that the ANC is not excluded from government. The opposition is a critical part of the government in a democracy – both as a watchdog and as an alternative source of critical input. The DA fulfils this role in parliament, and we are proud of what we do. The ANC needs to learn to do the same in Cape Town.<br><br>HZ

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• Posted by ubuntu:1 year ago

  

  This amounts to apartheid all over again. This unilateral move to reconstitute subcouncils by kicking out black Africans from five of them leaving them with only two left is no different than the recalcitrance of Ian Smith and his Rhodesian UDI where he could defy the rest of the world in the same manner you are defying the rest of the country by taking back Cape Town for the DA and the whites. Cape Town has indeed become an island separated from the rest of the country and it is an island that will lead to economic decline and a ring of fire of resentment from those who have been excluded and marginalised by your imperialist mayorality.

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