The Democratic Alliance has lamented a walkout once again by the African National Congress during a council meeting on Wednesday.

Tshwane executive mayor Solly Msimanga accused the ANC in a statement of displaying “flagrant disregard for their constitutional mandate to serve in the interests of the people of Tshwane by staging yet another walkout in today’s continuation Council meeting resulting in its premature adjournment”.

“As unsurprising as it is‚ it is still disappointing that public representatives elected to serve the people of Tshwane‚ which includes participating in Council‚ elected to shaft that mandate in a failed attempt to score cheap political points.

“In doing so the ANC in the Tshwane Metro Council cited that the meeting was inquorate and therefore could not continue. This is disingenuous and a deliberate distortion of the truth to try and mislead the public.

“The fact is that today’s meeting was quorate until the ANC benches decided to abdicate their responsibility and later cried foul that the DA-led administration plotted to shut down meaningful debate‚” said Msimanga.

This is not the first time the ANC has walked out of a council meeting since the new DA-led administration took over the capital after the 2016 local government elections.

Msimanga said it was regrettable that the EFF were also not present in council this morning.

“The reasons for this were not made clear to us and it will be for the EFF to explain to its constituents in Tshwane as well as the residents as a whole as to why they have chosen to put power back in the hands of the ANC when our people need us most to fight for them as they have vowed to.”