Council meetings suspended, libraries, museums closed

All municipal libraries, museums and art centres in Nelson Mandela Bay will be closed from Wednesday, municipal officials are barred from any overseas travel and council meetings have been suspended, for the foreseeable future.

This is according to letters sent to municipal staff by acting city manager Noxolo Nqwazi on Monday, shortly after a meeting with the executive directors.

Co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC Xolile Nqatha confirmed on Tuesday that no council meetings would take place.

The moves follow the strict measures announced by President Cyril Ramaphosa on Sunday night to contain the deadly coronavirus outbreak — with 85 confirmed cases in SA.

The Eastern Cape has no confirmed cases of the Covid-19 disease out of the 28 people tested in the province so far.

Among the drastic measures announced by the national government, were school closures from Wednesday until after the Easter weekend, the prohibition of gatherings of more than 100 people and travel bans for those from China, Iran, Italy, France, Germany, the US, South Korea and the UK.

In the first letter, Nqwazi said the municipal staff were still expected to be at work at the libraries, museums and art centres.

“But they must exercise caution concerning stipulated hygienic procedures,” she said.

The second letter said that any municipal official who had travelled out of the country from February 15 was required to immediately contact public health acting executive director Dr Patrick Nodwele.

Nqwazi said on Tuesday that international travel for city officials had been suspended in line with Ramaphosa’s state of disaster declaration.

“Domestic travel is restricted —  however, in cases of extreme emergencies, executive directors must motivate the importance of such trips,” she said.

Municipal meetings of more than 50 officials have also been cancelled, with smaller meetings allowed only in exceptional circumstances.

“Smaller meetings are on condition that stringent control measures are in place,” Nqwazi said.

The corporate services department would assist officials with alternative meeting methods such as teleconferences or video conferences.

“Executive directors have been instructed to ensure that while this challenge is being addressed the municipality continues to provide services within the guidelines of disaster management.”

She said Nodwele had been tasked with getting permission from the department of health to carry out Covid-19 testing at the municipality’s employee wellness centre in Walmer.

An internal COVID-19 task team, comprising officials from all departments, including the mayor’s office, has also been established.

This team will meet at least once a week.

“Budget and treasury will procure personal protective equipment which will be stored with supply chain management and only distributed at the request of the various departments,” Nqwazi said.

Nqatha said the city had more than 100 councillors, which meant council meetings were prohibited.

He said he would be speaking to co-operative governance minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma on how municipalities could ensure they remained compliant in relation to adopting draft budgets later this month and holding public meetings on the integrated development plan.

“Consultations at this point are ongoing and we will engage the National Treasury about matters relating to the budget and see if these can’t be deferred.

“Everyone has to follow the guidelines stipulated by the president. Everyone needs to comply,” Nqatha said.

The barring of council meetings appears to have scuppered the bid by the DA, ACDP, COPE, UDM and Patriotic Alliance to try to take back control of the city.

The parties’ hopes of electing a new mayor, deputy mayor, speaker and chief whip were first dashed on Thursday after speaker Buyelwa Mafaya declared a special sitting called to debate the issue illegal.

Then, when the parties tried to submit a new petition to Mafaya’s office on Friday, they were prevented from doing so by officials who claimed she had instructed them not to accept it.

On Monday, Buyeye said Mafaya had written to the co-operative governance department to establish whether council meetings should be postponed indefinitely.

The Eastern Cape government has also been spurred into action, with field hospitals being set up in rural areas and checkpoints at all points of entry to the province.

Officials from the Mandela Bay Development Agency (MBDA) have been allowed to work from home.

MBDA spokesperson Luvuyo Bangazi said the agency had implemented contingency measures to limit the risks of spreading the virus.

It had scaled down or postponed a number of upcoming events at the Tramways building.

The Fruits of Democracy networking event, scheduled for Friday, Love Story Night Market on March 26 and Damelin’s graduation ceremony on April 1, had all been postponed, the agency said.