02 Sep 2015

Some Central District Council councillors this week stopped council proceedings demanding to be paid imprest to necessitate their attendance.

Councillors argued that they had put their grievances to the council leadership during the March session, and that they had expected that their demands would have been addressed. 

Some councillors said they felt inclined to withhold proceedings in order to force action out of those responsible.

They argued that being foot soldiers of Members of Parliament, they deserved to be treated with the honour bestowed upon them.

The imprest, councillors argued, would help them secure safe accommodation and not to sleep in their vehicles. Councillors also argued that they needed to be accommodated in secure places to allow them to deliberate on people’s concerns and needs with ease.

“We have been informed that we are entitled to imprest, but to our surprise we were told it has not been budgeted for,” said Khurumela ward councillor, Mr George Makhura.

In an interview following the stay out, deputy council chairperson, Mr Ketshwereng Galeragwe confirmed that councillors were entitled to imprest. He also confirmed that councillors did not have accommodation.However, Mr Galeragwe said the imprest was not budgeted for this financial year.

“The assumption was that subsistence allowance would cater for councillors’ accommodation needs,” Mr Galeragwe said.

He said they were forced to rent accommodation from sub council meetings to full council sessions. However, Mr Galeragwe said the issue was being addressed at sub-districts level to see how best the councillors could be assisted. 

Although there are no funds, the deputy chairperson said they intend to establish how many councillors needed imprest in order to arrive at an amicable resolution of the issue. Ends