ANC stages EFF-style disruption of Tshwane council sitting

27 September 2016 - 13:28 By Penwell Dlamini

African National Congress councillors‚ now in opposition in the City of Tshwane‚ on Tuesday disrupted a planned sitting of the council - even getting into a brief physical scuffle. This came after ANC supporters earlier broke a glass door to force their way into the council chambers‚ prompting police to use pepper spray to disperse them.During the sitting at the council chambers in the Sammy Marks centre in Pretoria CBD‚ ANC councillors demanded that the chair of chairs in council steps down‚ saying he was not properly appointed.Speaker Rachel Mathebe had made her opening remarks‚ greeting the executive mayor Solly Msimanga‚ chief whip of council and chair of chairs - who is from the Democratic Alliance - when the ANC contingent rejected her statements.“You cannot continue recognizing this person. Regulations dictate that the chair of chairs should be a chairperson of one of the committees. This man is not a chair of any committee therefore we cannot proceed. You keep saying that the ANC is corrupt and you are doing this‚” said Mapiti Matsena deputy chair of the ANC in the region.ANC councillors decided to protest in council demanding that the meeting does not go on so long as the matter is not resolved.As the Speaker failed to contain the situation‚ the arguments turned into a physical tussle for just one minute.Msimanga pleaded with the opposition to calm down and requested that there be a short meeting with the leaders of the parties to resolve the matter. The ANC rejected the move.Earlier‚ the Tshwane Metro Police had to come to the rescue of councillors when an angry crowd tried to force their way into the council chambers.The angry crowd did not want to speak to anyone and forced TMG Digital to delete videos of the confrontation with the metro police.The glass door of the entrance was broken and the officers used pepper spray to disperse the crowd...

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