Government To Reinforce Code Of Conduct For Councilors Following Physical Brawls During Council Meetings

Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) said on Wednesday that the government will reinforce a code of conduct for councilors after they physically attacked each other during a heated discussion.

Thembi Nkadimeng, who serves as the minister of CoGTA, updated the media regarding the incident that took place in the City of Tshwane and in the City of eThekwini, where councilors physically attacked one another instead of debating about disagreements, and revealed a code of conduct was established for the councilors.

The minister highlighted this code of conduct will ensure that the councilors apply certain measures jointly, even if there were disagreements during the discussion so that the council will be able to conclude the meeting.

"We need to link with the thought of that we're trying to micromanage but with the thought of instability. Because, if the meeting is disrupted, it means council can't conclude on when the operations are supposed to be done and it gets to be postponed again and again," she said, SA News reported.

Nkadimeng also asked for political maturity during the meeting, adding that "we also want to regulate on the motions of no confidence. There are critical areas on how they should come about, which are fraud, corruption and not providing service delivery. But it can't be based on slight provocation, like not greeting and now you're angry with party B."

She turned down the allegations of the government trying to micromanage councils.

Aside from this, the minister also spoke about the infrastructure, noting that out of 144 Water Service Authorities' bulk water and sanitation infrastructure, 117 have been assessed.

"The assessments report with recommendations are being implemented and used to prioritize projects identification and funding through own funding, private sector funding and conditional grants," she said.

She pointed out that from 2016 to 2021, not even a single RDP house -- made for the poor South Africans by the government -- has been built.

"It's fair and well for the parties to win elections and govern how they want. But we need to protect citizens who were supposed to receive a house in Nelson Mandela Bay when funds were provided and were not utilized and no one was held accountable," she added.

Nkadimeng went on to share the pillars that make a municipality functional -- putting people first, delivering basic services, good governance, sound financial management, building capable local government institutions and local economic development.