News24.com | City of Joburg speaker defends absence from council meeting despite attending Tshwane metro sitting

Johannesburg speaker Colleen Makhubele.

• Colleen Makhubele said there were plans in place for the running of council if the speaker was absent. 
• This, after she was absent from a Joburg council meeting, but seen attending the Tshwane council meeting instead.
• She said the issue with her not attending was because of who she was, and would be different if she was white. 

Johannesburg speaker Colleen Makhubele on Wednesday said she had complete faith in the council continuing to run, despite her being on sick leave.

She was responding to queries around her absence at the ordinary council sitting last week. Makhubele was excused because of an illness, but was spotted at the Tshwane council sitting which was held to appoint a new mayor.

Makhubele addressed the questions about her absence at a press briefing on Wednesday to promote the Johannesburg Integrated Development Plan (IDP).

Officials leading the plan are holding consultations with residents over the coming weeks.

The consultations, which take place annually, are notoriously under attended.

Makhubele said she would respond to the query of her absence despite Joburg city spokesperson Virgil James warning reporters that the briefing was only to deal with the matters at hand.

Makhubele said:

She added that she had given a sick note to council after she had undergone surgery in February and was meant to still be at home, but she came in to speak on the IDP as she felt duty bound to do so.

She told News24 at the time that she attended the Tshwane meeting as she was requested to "urgently resolve the issue with the Cope councillor as I am the contact person at IEC for [Cope] for the province. I didn't know that when I am recovering I should spend my days in bed locked in the house".

On Wednesday she said: "If a white woman [was seen working when she's meant to be off sick] she would have been called a 'workaholic'. Because it's Colleen Makhubele - it's a delinquency.

"If I'm not around, council will run - no duties were neglected [at the meeting]."

The speaker did not respond to a query about the state of Cope, which has seen infighting among its leaders.

The party was also "disappointed" after two of its mayoral candidates for Tshwane - councillor Murunwa Makwarela and councillor Justice Sefanyetso - were found to be unsuitable for the role.

The DA's Cilliers Brink has since been elected to the position of executive mayor.