A civic organisation called Save Ditsobotla Movement (SDM) in the North West has tabled a motion of no confidence against the speaker of the Ditsobotla Local Municipality, Fikile Jakeni who was elected in a council sitting this week.
The motion was seconded by the EFF who were citing the speaker’s violation of the house rules for failing to follow the adopted agenda of the day by including an item on the secondment of the acting municipal manager.
The SDM leader, Letlamoreng Mosiane, said they’re mobilising other parties in the council to support the motion, which is expected to be debated within the next five days.
“On the 11th of January 2023 around 11 o’clock we submitted a motion of no confidence to the Speaker. And according to the standing rules it should be attended to after five days. We tabled this motion because of the Speaker’s behavior on Monday.
“The Speaker is the custodian of the integrity, member’s privileges, and interests as a council member. On the 9th of January 2023 during a special sitting of the council, he failed to follow the adopted agenda of the day by including the item of the secondment of the acting municipal manager from Cogta.
“The nature of the item itself warrants that the Executive Committee could have made a report to Council for discussion by doing so, he contravened the separation of powers between legislative issues and executive issues.
“The Speaker allowed an item that was not presented before the Executive Committee to be presented in council, by so doing he contravened the Council Standing Orders, Rule No. 7.1 read together with the entire rule 7 as the matter was not on the agenda.
“We are still mobilising other parties to back us. So we believe we will be successful in this motion,” Mosiane said.
However, the North West DA chairperson, Don Van Zyl, said it will not support the motion, arguing that it is premature to start the council with motions of no confidence, instead of addressing service delivery issues.
