Prince Albert Ratepayers' & Residents' Association

Linda Jaquet, Editor of the Prince Albert Friend newspaper, sent the following excellent report back on the Council Meeting held on 8th December 2010:

Prince Albert has a new Executive Mayor, Cllr April Pienaar and Deputy Mayor, Cllr NS Abrahams.  They were elected by their fellow councillors at a Special Council Meeting on Tuesday evening, 7 December.  Both are members of the ANC. Their election follows the provincial ANC’s recent decision to recall Cllr Magdalena Benjamin as Mayor.
 
The Council met for the last time this year on Wednesday morning, 8 December.  Five councillors were present – three DA and two ANC. Cllr Benjamin apologised in writing indicating that she was meeting with her legal adviser.
 
Mayor Pienaar thanked his colleagues for their show of confidence in him and made the following points at the start of the meeting:  
 
*     Local government elections were some months away and performance and service delivery were essential.  Residents had to feel that their lives had improved;

*     The Council must focus on the Integrated Development Programme (IDP), as well as the five priorities of National Government.  The time for talk and rondstaan was over;

*     All councillors had to ‘perform’ in their respective portfolios and report back weekly to the Council’s standing committees. Councillors and their portfolios would be assessed over a period of 60 days;

*     He would not use his executive powers but would constitute a mayoral committee (of the councillors) which would meet weekly to reach decisions on matters as permitted by law;
 
The Mayor also instructed the councillors and the Acting Municipal Manager, Heinrich Mettler and other managers, that if they were away from their offices they had to put notices to this effect on the Municipal notice boards so that the community and other Municipal employees would know where they were and for how long they would be.