Half a million rand — this is how much it roughly costs to call, organise and prepare for a Johannesburg council meeting.
On Tuesday, the Johannesburg council held its 15th extra-ordinary meeting. However, the meeting did not conclude its business and was adjourned by the speaker due to countless caucus breaks [which are legislated in the Municipal Structures Act] requested by political parties.
This resulted in endless delays and the frustration of parties citing that the meeting was a waste of the city’s limping finances.
An insider explained that every 12 months, council prepares a calendar which includes council meetings, Section 79 committee meetings and other related meetings of council.
This is usually submitted around the June council meeting, and is approved by council. It then becomes effective from July, and is tied to the financial year [the financial year runs from July 1 to June 30 every year].
An extra-ordinary meeting is one that is called outside the scheduled meetings the council agreed and planned to have at the beginning of the financial year. These are also not placed on the year planner because they are convened as and when the speaker and council sees fit.
A hefty sum of money goes into the preparation and hosting of the meeting — which becomes pointless when the council meeting does not conclude its business.
Dubbed wasteful expenditure by most, this is the case when a meeting does not meet, quorum collapses, resolutions are not taken or the agenda is not concluded.
You have to cater for 270 councillors, they each receive a breakfast and a lunch at R800 each — and this hospitality is extended to councillor’s guests, which averages at 50 people.
— Former council speaker
Vasco Da Gama
Former chief whip and DA councillor Tyrell Meyers said it was “sad” to admit that the council has had more extra-ordinary meetings instead of ordinary council meetings this year, to “settle political scores”.
The costs ranges just over half a million, largely due to catering.
“And every time you have a council meeting outside of the calendar, it’s a struggle for the councillors who have other meetings set out in advance,” said Meyers.
Former council speaker Vasco Da Gama confirmed that the figure could range from R400,000 to R500,000 for an ordinary council meeting, and could spike up to above R600,000 for an extra-ordinary meeting because of the larger amount of people that need to be catered for.
“You have to cater for 270 councillors, they each receive a breakfast and a lunch at R800 each — and this hospitality is extended to councillor’s guests, which averages at 50 people.
“Besides the catering, there are also costs related to added security, EMS and ambulance services on standby and IT support to ensure the smooth running of the operation and that residents can seamfully stream the proceedings online. These costs all add up at the end of the day,” said Da Gama.
The former speaker said these figures would need to be increased by 10% to get a realistic idea of what the current costs are, citing that these were the 2021 figures under his tenure.
Meyers slammed council speaker Colleen Makhubele for adjourning the meeting on Tuesday, saying that her reasoning was invalid.
Makhubele said councillors had been asking her to grant them breaks for their deliberations all day and that it was clear councillors were not ready to elect a mayor and therefore adjourned the meeting.
“I disagree with the speaker when she said that councillors are not ready to proceed with the election of the mayor. That was not the case for the DA or the other political parties like ActionSA and the IFP, for example. We wished to continue with the election and voting process, that is why we were there.”
Makhubele announced that council would host another extra-ordinary meeting, the 16th one in this financial year, to again attempt to elect a mayor for the city on Friday.
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