The Democratic Alliance (DA) in the Buffalo City Metropolitan Municipality (BCMM) has issued an urgent demand to Municipal Manager Mxolisi Yawa for the immediate implementation of live video and/or audio streaming for all Council meetings.
This action, is essential to rectify a critical compliance gap and ensure that the municipality finally meets its legislative obligations for transparency and public access.
The DA has requested a concrete plan and firm timeline for immediate implementation. We stress that the Council Meeting set down for tomorrow, 29 October 2025, must be streamed live on platforms such as YouTube and Facebook.
In a letter, dated 24 October 2025, the DA asserted that the municipality’s current approach of only providing post-meeting summaries ” falls short of the legislative imperatives”.
[download letter here]
Section 20 of the Municipal Systems Act is clear that meetings of Council and its committees must be open to the public. This guarantees the public’s constitutional right to witness deliberation, observe voting, and attend in real-time. A summary is not a substitute for witnessing the democratic process itself.
In our letter, I highlighted that live streaming is the most effective and accessible way to comply with this law, noting that other municipalities, such as the City of Cape Town and Kouga Municipality, have successfully adopted this practice. The technological infrastructure is already largely in place in BCMM, too.
The ongoing failure to implement these transparency measures is an indictment of democratic principles. Furthermore, we demand that all agendas and minutes be made publicly available on the municipal website, as they are currently accessible only via the intranet.
Trust between Buffalo City Metro and its communities has already been irreparably eroded due to inept governance and failing services, and it is no surprise that the municipality seeks to keep residents in the dark.
The people of Buffalo City deserve better. They deserve a transparent government that delivers services and puts their needs first.