Disruptions fail to halt regional IDP summit
19 April 2017
The City of Joburg is laying criminal charges against ANC councillors following the violent disruption of an Integrated Development Plan (IDP) summit in Midrand last night,” said Johannesburg Executive Mayor Cllr Herman Mashaba.
This is after an unruly mob wreaked havoc at a regional summit at Midrand High School in which two people were injured. Chaos reigned and chairs, bottles and fists flew as members of the ANC on one hand and the Democratic Alliance (DA) and Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) on the other clashed after an attempt was made to prevent Mayor Mashaba from addressing the summit.
Mayhem ensued after an ANC member tried to ask the Mayor a question as he was about to speak. But Speaker Cllr Vasco da Gama, who was directing the proceedings, refused, saying there was time allocated for that later in the programme.
ANC members did not take kindly to the response and started disrupting the proceedings. DA and EFF members then shouted down the ANC supporters, leading to free-for-all scenes.
Cllr Da Gama tried in vain to cool down tempers, which were already running high.
Members of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department (JMPD) tried to bring order but were outnumbered by ANC members.
An ANC member and EFF supporter were wounded in the fracas and had to be treated by paramedics on the scene.
Two ANC councillors – former MMC for Environment and Infrastructure Services Matshidiso Mfikoe and former MMC for Public Safety Sello Lemao – also tried in vain to calm down the party’s followers.
South African Police Service reinforcements were called after the meeting had been delayed for more than an hour. The unruly ANC members were eventually forced to leave.
In his speech after the resumption of the meeting, Mayor Mashaba condemned the “hooliganism displayed by members of the ANC” and praised all those who ensured that the meeting continued despite the disruptions.
“The ANC does a similar thing in council meetings. If you see this type of reaction, you must know that the ANC does not want to accept that they lost the elections in August last year. Nobody is going to stop us from bringing about change. I will make sure that you get the change you deserve,” he said.
Also present at the meeting were Members of the Mayoral Committee such as Cllr Rabelani Dagada (Finance), Cllr Funzela Ngobeni (Development Planning) and Cllr Yao-Heng Michael Sun (Public Safety) as well as Chief Whip Cllr Kevin Wax.
Cllr Mashaba said he had committed himself to working with residents, adding that no one was going to stop “the winds of change”. He said he intended changing the JMPD leadership as it had “allowed the chaos to happen”.
The Mayor spoke about the importance of the IDP, saying it was a social contract between the City and its residents.
“It’s a tool to bring about change. We’ve to treat our communities as our bosses. It’s business unusual,” he said.
The Mayor said the IDP was based on five pillars, which were:
Growing the economy and creating jobs;
Enhancing quality of life by improving service delivery and taking care of the environment;
Advancing pro-poor development that provides meaningful redress;
Building caring, safe and secure communities; and
Instituting an honest, responsive and productive government.
Cllr Mashaba said the City was facing a R170-billion infrastructure backlog. He said the City aimed to spend R10-billlion a year to address it. “As part of our commitment to running a pro-poor government, we’ve set a target of 60% of capital spending in poor communities. This will increase to 65% in the medium term,” he said.