For one DA councillor, the City of Cape Town's budget debate must have seemed like the ideal time to play Solitaire.
|||Cape Town - Deciding how to spend the City of Cape Town’s R31 billion purse is not fun and games, but for DA councillor Suzette Little, Wednesday’s lengthy budget debate must have seemed like the ideal time to play Solitaire.
Now she could face disciplinary action for playing the game on her laptop during a council meeting.
Speaker Dirk Smit confirmed on Thursday that he would investigate the matter to determine whether Little was in contravention of the code of conduct or rules of council. If any transgression was found, the matter would be referred to the disciplinary committee, said Smit.
As councillors engaged in a heated debate on the city’s 2013 budget, the mayoral committee member for social and early childhood development took the opportunity to play card games on her laptop. Unfortunately, she was in full view of the public gallery. ANC councillor Koos Bredenhand alerted other councillors to Little’s faux pas.
As word spread that the councillor’s close scrutiny of her computer screen was to shuffle the cards of her game, and not to follow the budget debate, the city’s media team sprung into action.
They furiously SMSed councillors in the chamber to advise Little to stop playing, which she immediately did. Within seconds, the cards had been replaced by the columns of the city’s budget.
Although playing computer games is not explicitly outlawed during council meetings under the city’s Rules of Council document, according to section 3 – conduct at meetings – the Speaker must:
* Maintain order during meetings.
* Ensure compliance with the Code of Conduct for Councillors at meetings.
* Ensure that meetings are conducted in accordance with these rules of order.
* Ensure that any person refusing to comply with his/her ruling leaves the meeting place immediately.
* Ensure that members conduct themselves in a dignified and orderly manner.
Under the heading “Interpretation of Rules”, it said: “The ruling of the Speaker in regard to the application or interpretation of these rules and other procedural matters not dealt with in the Rules of Order is, once he/she has given his/her reasons, final and binding.
anel.lewis@inl.co.za
Cape Argus