Chaos erupt at Gaborone City Council

Gaborone City Council chambers turned chaotic on Wednesday morning this week when a full council meeting resumed without notice motions of some councillors.

According to a memo to councillors the full council meeting was to reconvene on Wednesday following the adjournment of the September full council meeting. Councillors were fuming after discovering that their motions were not in the notice paper without their knowledge. The council’s Special Executive Committee made the removals. Intervention by Gaborone Mayor Kagiso Thutlwe with the advice of the council attorney did not bear any fruits resulting in the council meeting being adjourned.

The meeting is expected to reconvene within 14 days. The mayor indicated that the committee is empowered by the Local Government Act to take such a decision (removal of motion from notice paper). The councillors however stated that this contradicts the Council Standing Orders and the Botswana Councils Handbook, which clearly state that Full Council is the Supreme decision taking body.A Special Executive Committee of the council chaired by the mayor held a meeting on Monday this week whereat some alleged unlawful decisions were taken. The committee comprises some councillors and some of the executive council staff members. The meeting is said to have taken a decision to remove several motions, which had been noticed by councillors and were due for debate during the full council meeting which was to start on Wednesday this week.

Councillor for Phase 4 Sergeant Kgosietsile had on Tuesday prior to the full council meeting instructed his lawyers - J.J Matomela - to order the reinstatement of his motions and those of other councillors. The lawyers wrote the GCC that the removal of the motions was done without any legally acceptable reasons advanced. “We advise that the Special Executive Committee has no powers whatsoever to deny a councillor the right to table a motion before the full council meeting. There is nothing either in the Township Act or in the Standing Orders, which suggests that it has such powers.

The decision of the Special Executive Committee is unlawful as it seeks to take away the right of the councillors to represent their electorates by way of tabling motions for debate before the full council. The correct position is that only the full council has the powers to reject a motion, not a committee comprising of few individuals and whose power in that regard is not provided for”, reads the letter. In an interview with Botswana Guardian after the adjournment of the meeting Kgosietsile said he would not proceed with the legal course if indeed the motions would be reinstated. The councillor who sits in the committee as Chairman of Physical Planning said he warned during the meeting that the decision was wrong.

“I told them when they were busy removing some of the motions, mine included, that what they were doing was wrong. They advised me that the committee was empowered now to their surprise the councillors told them the same thing in the chamber. We bring these motions and questions here because people who voted us want us to present such issues. The full council as the supreme body should either reject, adopt or defer the motion and not the committee”, he explained.