EFF councillors in Johannesburg lose it as member votes wrong way

Tensions ran high between Economic Freedom Fighter (EFF) councillors in Johannesburg on Friday after one of their own bungled a vote‚ resulting in a squabble.

Drama unfolded in the Johannesburg council chambers after an EFF councillor voted for a matter he was supposed to be voting against.

This followed the tabling of the first quarter performance report for the group finance department.

"It is the view of the EFF that we should not accept or pass a financial budget that has a lot of discrepancies because the consolidated group finance report must be of the figures provided by departments‚" said EFF Johannesburg chairman Musa Novela.

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An EFF council member said the party rejected the report and asked finance MMC Rabelani Dagada to explain the discrepancies.

"You raise a very important matter. We will ensure that our numbers are consistent‚" said Dagada.

The finance MMC added that the issues in the report were not intentional.

This prompted council speaker Vasco da Gama to call for a vote through a show of hands and most councillors apart from those in the EFF seemed to support the budget being passed.

However‚ Novela said a simple show of hands did not properly reflect the numbers of how the councillors had voted.

"We can't work like that … how many against how many? Please do not do those things. We ask very nicely‚ let's have proper figures … that indicate how the voting process went‚" said Novela to Da Gama.

The speaker then called for a different process‚ during which the names of councillors were read out aloud and they had to respond with a "yes" or a "no".

However‚ an EFF councillor responded with a "yes"‚ but changed tack when he realised his mistake saying that he thought roll call was taking place.

The meeting was halted for a moment as councillors argued over whether or not the "yes" counted as a vote.

At some point Novela quickly left his seat and strode to the EFF councillor speaking to him in serious hushed tones as the councillor sat silently nodding.

Before Novela got to him members of the EFF had turned towards the councillor shouting and gesturing.

Democratic Alliance councillor Michael Sun brought calm to the meeting after he said the EFF was new to council and its members should be given a chance to learn.

The councillor's name was called out again and he responded with a resounding "no".

TMG Digital