‘Go home’: Joburg council meetings on indefinite hold after Metro Centre closure

28 Sep 2023

City of Johannesburg councillors and staff will be working from home after the closure of the city’s Metro Centre in Braamfontein.

Speaker of the Johannesburg Council Colleen Makhubele said the city had been forced to close its Metro Centre – which hosts the council and is the hub of the municipality’s operations – after a transformer exploded two weeks ago, causing a fire to break out.

“Since then the Metro Centre has been closed. It affected water and power supply. It’s not safe to move back in,” said Makhubele.

In a statement on Thursday, Makhubele said the closure of the Metro Centre and cancellation of Wednesday’s council meeting was due to electrical faults and a water outage at the Braamfontein building.

“As a result, the use of the facility poses a health and safety risk for the attendees, who include councillors, officials and the residents of the city. The suitable council facilities are unavailable on the said date, and the external facilities too costly,” read the statement.

“Furthermore, please note that a virtual meeting will not be practical due to load shedding. The details of the next council meeting will be availed in due course.”

Searching for an alternative

Makhubele told Daily Maverick on Thursday afternoon that the building’s safety issues were not new and had been raised in 2022.

“The council took a resolution to vacate the building and that a plan be devised regarding where everybody would then be temporarily housed while renovations were under way,” she said.

“But a plan has not been laid on the table as yet.”

Makhubele said a tender for alternative office space had been advertised, but the process was being handled by the Johannesburg Property Company (JPC) and she was not aware of its progress.

“We had to cancel the council sitting because on Tuesday we received a report which was saying we should not consider using the council chamber because it was also unsafe,” she said.

Makhubele said alternative working space in Brixton had been considered because of the property’s convenience and compliance with safety regulations.

“But it was already booked for other various events around the city,” she said.

“When we then went out for a private service provider who could assist, such as Nasrec or the Gallagher Estate, they charged R1-million just for the venue.”

Makhubele said the exorbitant cost would not be suitable as it would require the city to deviate from its cost containment policy.

“Considering online meetings is also currently not ideal because of load shedding,” she said.

“We are looking at rescheduling the council meetings at Brixton in the next week or two once suitable dates have been agreed with individual councillors.”

‘Big impact’

Considering the importance of the council’s work in contributing to a functional Johannesburg, Makhubele said the impact of not being able to work at the Metro Centre was huge.

Reports destined for council on Wednesday were delayed.

“Even our emails were not working. Telephones are not working… the building is closed. So customer service, people reaching us, is a bit of a challenge,” said Makhubele.

Read more in Daily Maverick: Minister Mchunu slams absentee Joburg mayor after two-thirds of the city hit by water cuts

“There is a big impact on how we are operating… employees are working from home at the moment. MMCs and everyone is working from home,” Makhubele said.

DA Johannesburg caucus leader Belinda Kayser-Echeozonjoku confirmed the cancellation of the council meeting and closure of the property.

“We were informed that the building is unsafe. There was no appropriate venue to have the sitting,” she said on Thursday.

“The inability of council [to meet] means that no reports, like the quarterly reports, oversight reports, will be served and be interrogated through debates,” said Kayser-Echeozonjoku.

“No oral or written questions will be responded to and the business of council will be delayed,” she said.

She said council meetings were broadcast live, which meant the public would be deprived of the opportunity to watch their representatives interrogate and table concerns raised.

Resolving the problems

“We still do not have a plan for when this might be resolved. We are awaiting a plan from the city manager who, during our engagement on Tuesday, was awaiting a plan from the JPC,” said Makhubele.

She said mayor Kabelo Gwamanda and city manager Floyd Brink would advise the council on when the problems at the centre would be resolved.

Asked if the closure of the property and cancellation of the council meeting was a result of the fire at the building more than a week ago, Kayser-Echeozonjoku agreed, adding, “It was the fire and also the inability to find an alternative venue.”

Read more in Daily Maverick: Fire at Joburg Metro Centre causes immediate closure — mayor, city manager and Speaker moved out

“Governance in the city has failed,” she said.

“We have a Johannesburg where councillors are called racists for raising service delivery concerns… where councillors are threatened with legal action for asking that the city manager makes his official phone number public.

“It’s a Johannesburg that is captured where residents pay for politicians’ politically aligned allies to be placed in strategic positions in the city,” Kayser-Echeozonjoku continued.

She said the city’s administration was a “mess” and that the only way to solve the problems was to allow residents of Johannesburg a second opportunity at the ballot box to choose who they thought best represented them.

The DA has proposed dissolving the council and holding fresh elections.

“The mayor and his MMCs and the speaker are likely afraid that there will be protests for service delivery at any venue outside of council chambers because they have failed the residents during a water crisis,” she said.

The indefinite closure of the building has also raised concerns that it might open the doors for tender corruption to enrich some of the coalition partners in the city.

“We will not be surprised if the tender to host the council is fast-tracked to enrich cadres that are aligned to the ANC-EFF-PA doomsday coalition,” Kayser-Echeozonjoku said.

The ANC, EFF and PA could not be reached for comment at the time of writing.

“We have yet to hear what process is being followed in [the awarding] of the tender to host the council,” said Kayser-Echeozonjoku. DM

Categories:

Tags:

DM is much better if you are signed in...

South Africa

Searching for an alternative

‘Big impact’

Resolving the problems