AN ECONOMIC Freedom Fighters (EFF) councillor deployed in Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality (EMLM) as a proportional representative councillor and in Chris Hani District Municipality (CHDM) as a representative of his party and the local authority might find himself in hot water after failing to attend council meetings.
CHDM council speaker Mxolisi Koyo said Sakhele Kula only attended the inaugural council meeting on August 23 last year. Koyo said the council’s rules and ethics committee would handle the matter and make recommendations to the council and those could be sent to cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa.
“While the committee will look into the matter we will also engage EMLM to see if there is any process they have started in dealing with this matter. We will also hear from councillor Kula why he is not attending council meetings,” Koyo said.
Speaking to The Rep in a telephonic interview yesterday morning, Kula said he was in hospital after being involved in a car accident three weeks ago.
“I was involved in a bad accident three weeks ago near Jamestown where 10 people died. I am now in hospital in Johannesburg. I have been calling the municipality to tell them where I am, but now I will write to them,” Kula said. He said the accident was the reason he was not attending council meetings. He had been travelling in a Toyota Quantum when the accident happened.
However, according to the attendance register of council meetings at CHDM, Kula only attended the first council meeting on August 23.
He tendered an apology on August 31 and nothing is written next to his name for the council meeting of November 9. For the council meetings of December 12, February 21 and March 22 Kula is entered as having been absent without leave.
EFF party leader in Enoch Mgijima and EMLM councillor Thobeka Blekiwe said the party was aware of Kula’s absence. “We have been trying to get hold of him, but we can’t. We were told he is in Cape Town. He does not even attend the EMLM council meetings,” she said.
Asked how the EFF dealt with such cases, Blekiwe said the matter had the attention of the national leaders.
