Durban - eThekwini speaker Thabani Nyawose has extended an olive branch to the DA and IFP after members from both parties staged a walkout from last week’s council sitting at the Inkosi Albert Luthuli International Convention Centre in Durban.
The walkout last Thursday was in protest over what they contended was Nyawose’s hostility towards the two parties and the kid-glove treatment of ANC councillors.
DA deputy caucus leader in eThekwini council Mzamo Billy accused Nyawose of allowing ANC councillors to make disrespectful comments and homophobic insults about DA councillors.
According to Billy, he was called names and accused of being a puppet of white people, a remark he labelled as reprehensible.
Yesterday, he indicated the party would file a formal complaint against the speaker and ANC councillors.
“We are in the process of writing to the speaker to express our reservations with the manner in which he dealt with comments from ANC councillors at the council sitting,” Billy said.
He said the letter was set to be delivered to Nyawose’s office this week.
The DA walkout came just after the IFP had abandoned council proceedings, citing Nyawose’s conduct at the meeting.
IFP caucus leader Mdu Nkosi said Nyawose had through his actions confirmed a long-held view by the IFP that he did not possess the requisite skills to manage council meetings, insisting that his judgement was clouded by emotionalism, party partiality and a conflict of allegiance.
The party called on the MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Bongi Sithole-Moloi, to investigate the conduct of the speaker and make a public statement on his fitness to remain chairperson of council due to his erratic, irrational patterns.
Responding to the complaints yesterday, Nyawose explained the difficulty he had in dealing with remarks: “As a speaker who presides over the meeting of council, once a councillor has been noted their microphones are switched on, I am in a position to hear what the councillors say and make a ruling if such utterances are not in line with the code of conduct.
“When they are exchanging words without being noted, it is difficult for me to know whether they are exchanging any unpleasant remarks because their microphones are off,” he said.
He noted that the two parties had asked for caucuses at different intervals, prompting sitting proceedings to be halted.
He expressed concern at the walkout of the two parties, indicating that he wanted an audience with the councillors to iron out the matter.
“My office will write a letter to the two parties seeking a meeting with their caucuses so that we can determine what their problems are and find a way that will ensure that council sittings are orderly,” Nyawose said.
He stressed that he had a duty to ensure that meetings proceeded without any disruptions.