The EFF in Tshwane has vowed to disrupt the council budget vote sitting scheduled for Wednesday after their call for the sitting to be cancelled was rejected.
Regional party chairperson Obakeng Ramabodu said given the events in the city, they believe the meeting should be cancelled to give attention to, among other things, the Hammanskraal cholera problem.
“We have not received any cancellation from council so we are going to that meeting. If they are not going to grant us our request, we are going to disrupt — it's not a secret,” he said.
The EFF stood in solidarity with the residents of Hammanskraal and affected families.
“We have identified many lies the city has told the people of Tshwane for the previous year, including the mayors that came before [mayor Cilliers] Brink,” he said.
The EFF stormed into the chamber, blaming the cholera deaths on the DA's “negligence and lack of leadership”. Councillors entered the chamber with a murky bottle of water, saying it was from the taps of Hammanskraal.
“If you are denying responsibility, Brink, you must drink this water,” said Ramabodu.
“Our people have been promised many projects in city budgets meant to solve their problems but we have not seen anything. So we are not going to listen to a budget that is not going to be implemented.”
He asked why there were no plans in place to save the residents of Hammanskraal.
“Are we going to wait for the death toll of 15 to be 20, 50 or 300? What are we doing as leaders? We can't sit and become bureaucrats who prioritise bureaucratic arrangements of budgets instead of servicing our people?
“What budget is worth discussing when our people are dying in Hammanskraal?" he asked.
Brink's spokesperson Sipho Stuurman said it was unlikely the sitting would be postponed at the behest of the EFF.
“We cannot be dictated to by the EFF as a democratically elected administration. The council meeting is likely to continue,” said Stuurman.
Despite the request being rejected, Ramabodu vowed to ensure it did not take place as they continued protests in the chamber.
“If they claim to not want to be dictated to by us, they are going to see dictatorship today [Wednesday]. We hope other parties will come on board and share the same political consciousness we have,” he said.
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