Sol Plaatje Municipality mayor under pressure from demands

Northern Cape Premier, Sylvia Lucas, says Kimberley’s Sol Plaatje Municipality can no longer delay its council meetings and has been given until Thursday to sit or it will face legal implications.

The council has not attended meetings in an apparent attempt to delay the release of the long-awaited 106 report into alleged maladministration in the municipality.

Kimberley residents, who requested the investigation into the municipality, are now demanding that the Department of Cooperative Governance, Human Settlements and Traditional Affairs releases the report to the public. Lucas says the council is legally bound to sit this week.

Sylvia Lucas has requested the disgruntled residents to be patient  after they have called for her intervention.

“If we publish the report without it going through the processes of council, it will just be another report, whereas if we go through the correct procedures, it will become a legally binding document. The council meeting will then have to sit on Thursday. There are legal implications as to how much time can lapse before a council can sit.

“What we have agreed on, all of us, is that the community representatives indeed understand that in order for the recommendations of the report to be implemented, it should be tabled in council to be made a resolution of council. If we publish the report without it going through the process of council, it will just be another report. Where else if it goes through the right and correct procedures, it will become a legally binding document. The council meeting will then have to sit on Thursday,” says Lucas.