You know those petulant children at preschool who have a meltdown when they don’t get their own way? Well hey, they grew up to become ANC members in Tshwane.

We know that the ANC suffered a humbling defeat in the municipality, and ever since then they haven’t been too keen on mayor (and DA member) Solly Msimanga.

That might be to do with some of the cost-cutting measures he has taken, including putting an end to lavish catered events at the expense of the taxpayer (HERE).

The ANC already stand accused of trying to sabotage governance with unauthorised land grabs (HERE), members in the province caught illegally selling off land.

Moving on to the latest fiasco, yesterday’s sitting of the council in Tshwane. Here’s TimesLive:

During the sitting at the council chambers in the Sammy Marks centre in Pretoria CBD‚ ANC councillors demanded that the chair of chairs in council steps down‚ saying he was not properly appointed.

Speaker Rachel Mathebe had made her opening remarks‚ greeting the executive mayor Solly Msimanga‚ chief whip of council and chair of chairs – who is from the Democratic Alliance – when the ANC contingent rejected her statements.

That’s all fine, but how did they handle the situation from there? Another TimesLive story:

ANC councillors prevented the security staff from carrying out the order and the metro police officers were ordered inside.

The meeting descended into scenes reminiscent of recent parliamentary tussles. ANC councillors confronted the police‚ stretching out their hands and saying‚ “Here are our hands. Arrest us. This is what you are here for‚ then do it”.

During the confrontation there were also a tussle between the metro cops and the councillors.

Six hours into the meeting‚ council had not begun dealing with the agenda of the day. Metro police were still negotiation with ANC councillors for one of them to leave the chamber.

Just take a look for yourself at how matters unfolded:

And another angle:

And here, clear and wanton destruction of property. It’s not on from our students, and it’s even worse when it’s at the hands of government officials:

Imagine wanting to make a metro ungovernable, something that affects each and every citizen that calls it home, because you can’t admit that your party’s failings caused the electorate to completely lose faith?

There are steps to be taken when you believe someone has been appointed without the appropriate steps being taken (cough, Hlaudi), but they don’t include destroying property that will just end in funds being redirected away from where they should be spent.

Sigh, it would all be far more entertaining if it wasn’t so sad.

[sources:timeslive&timeslive]