Julie Suddaby

Attendance

Present

54

Leave of absence

9

Absent without leave

1

Arrived late

0

Left early

0

Reasons given for leave: Private business (7), Other (1), Party business (1).

"Absent without leave" means the signed minutes of a meeting held while they were on council neither list them as present nor excuse them, and no similar name appears that day, so misspellings in the minutes don't count against anyone. Each square links to the minutes.

In the chamber

From the 10 sittings transcribed so far in their term. Times are approximate, to the nearest transcript line.

Not present when called

0

Times given the floor

3

Average wait to start

9 s

Average greetings first

0 s

Apology or leave of absence (1)

• 27 Aug 2026 · 00:05:12Leaving early. Listed among councillors leaving early; time not stated. sitting

In their words

Every time the chair gave them the floor in a transcribed sitting (3), newest first. The words are the AI transcript of that stretch of the livestream (Argon), so they can include the chair or an interjection; the time link is the place to check.

• 30 Jul 2026 · 00:39:26Item 2: MPAC oversight report · 4 min 6 s

  Read what they said (552 words)

  Thank you, Madam Speaker. All protocol observed. I'm speaking on item two, the oversight report of the 24/25 annual report of the City of Johannesburg by the Municipal Public Accounts Committee. It must be said in this house and to the residents of our beleaguered city, that the Municipal Public Accounts Committee of the City of Joburg submits this report with reservations. Receiving a qualified audit from the Auditor-General

  has done nothing to rein in the wanton disregard for sound financial management of this administration. When the committee requested accountability on the material irregularities, the response was a haughty "the AG got it wrong." Madam Speaker, there is no provision in law for a municipality to evaluate a finding of the Auditor-General as incorrect after the audit opinion is made public. The time to disagree with the AG is before the management letter is written and

  not after. The administration, in fact, successfully upgraded to a qualified opinion in those discussions that caused the annual report to serve in council six months late. That was as good as it was going to get. For example, a building was bought in 2014 for the purpose of creating much-needed student accommodation. That building is shuttered, not refurbished,

  not used by students, exposed to hijack, squat, criminality, and the committee was told there is no financial loss to the city. 12 years of loss of rental income was not even a discussion point in the report. This continued hubris is what has caused the Auditor-General to run out of patience and accept no more excuses. MPAC has run out of patience and will now no longer accept

  any more excuses. The Democratic Alliance welcomes the changes introduced through Recommendation 3, which recommends that the inputs from the departments be approved and adopted as resolutions of council. This gives each recommendation from the departments proper standing and creates a clearer responsibility for its implementation. The responsible departments must record the resolutions directed to them, implement them, and report on progress, and the relevant Section 79 committees must then follow

  that progress and hold the executive accountable, especially where deadlines are missed. This frees MPAC to exclusively pursue its own mandate, that of holding those responsible for the incurrence of UIFW, and pursue them, a DA government will certainly will, as Section 32 of the MFMA requires. This council is nearing the end of its term, but the administration's obligation to implement these recommendations

  continues. Every outstanding MPAC resolution approved in this council in this term must enter the next term with its history, its deadline, responsible department, and implementation status clearly recorded. On the 4th of November, the DA will ask the residents of Johannesburg for a mandate to govern this city under Mayor Helen Zille. A DA-led council will require a full account of every outstanding resolution, not only from MPAC,

  but from all the Section 79 committees. Officials will account for financial mismanagement, missed deadlines, repeated failure to implement. Consequence management will be implemented. The people of Johannesburg deserve a government that works. They must see the decisions taken in this chamber reflected in reliable water and electricity supply, functioning roads, cleaner communities. In short, municipal services that they can depend on. The DA supports the recommendations

  contained in this report. I thank you.

• 22 Jul 2026 · 04:15:27Items 14-16 (Group Finance and GICT) · 3 min 12 s

  Read what they said (439 words)

  Thank you, Madam Speaker, all protocol observed. I rise to speak on Item 15, the performance assessment report for the GICT Department for the 25/26 financial year, quarter three. The C-grade department continues to deliver C-grade results against the daftest KPIs in the entire city. Even an A-grade performance of these KPIs will never produce a state-of-the-art, innovative, high-octane technological department that an organization of the complexity of the City of Joburg

  requires. National Treasury has made a few demands of the city over the last few years. One of those requirements was that MSCOA project be completed to the point of having 15 business processes fully compliant by 30th of June 2026. That project has not moved at all since December 2025 because the suppliers have not been paid. So the June 2026 deadline has not been achieved.

  The department acknowledges that it is a bottleneck in the document retention policy process, as it has not yet delivered a safe digital repository for the 20 years of storage that public documents are required to be kept available. This house must also note that the document retention policy is another matter on which the National Treasury is applying pressure. Is the failure to deliver the safe digital repository a matter of lack of management capacity,

  or have these suppliers also not been paid? One wonders what the purpose of GICT is these days, considering that all software requirements must now be placed in MTC's custody, as they are to be the implementation agents of all new software. And then they charge all their fellow entities a management fee. Software is now more expensive for the end user as a result of having to pay the middleman,

  which is in fact also the City of Joburg. That sounds ridiculous because it is. A DA government under the leadership of Helen Zille will ensure that the city's information and communication technology systems are appropriate and support the requirements of a complex organization such as is this city, that the relevant structures deliver A-grade results and that the residents of the city are served with access and applications that work. Such a government will do away with

  fantasy profits and will ensure public documents are kept safe and available for as long as the law requires, because a DA government will, quite simply, uphold the law. The question must be asked: is this administration running the city into the ground in the hope that a new government cannot succeed? Carry on. The only way for the city to go from December is up. The Democratic Alliance notes this report.

  I thank you.

• 24 Jun 2026 · 01:33:3861 · 8 min 14 s

  Read what they said (661 words)

  Thank you, Madam Speaker. All protocol observed. I rise to speak on item 61, the motivation that Council certify as irrecoverable and regularize irregular and unauthorized expenditure from April 2026. Let's start with National Treasury's demand that the 2021 balance of UIFW be reduced by 86% by 30th of June 2026.

  Otherwise, the July 2026 equitable share tranche is at risk. Of equal importance is National Treasury's demand that there be a document retention policy in place, also by next week. Otherwise, the July 2026 equitable share tranche is at risk. With the above in mind, this document is not what the committee approved.

  Recommendation 1 of this report is so factually incorrect as to constitute a material misstatement that borders on having zero relationship with the truth. It certainly carries no commitment to transparent, honest, and good government. Let me read it to this Council. That the Council certify as irrecoverable and regularize R876,692,456.59 in irregular expenditure by the City of Joburg Metropolitan Municipality

  for the 2010/2011 to 2015 to 2016 financial year. Included in the annexure is R8,073,384.28 in irregular expenditure for the years 2010 to 2016. The balance comes from years 2022 to 2026.

  Let's look at that R8 million and odd rand for the 10 to 16-year-old matters. That this committee is kept busy with investigating so many historical matters leads to one to consider the intentionality to keep the committee from dealing with current matters, which will cause current matters to themselves become age-old matters. Rinse, repeat. The request to regularize, i.e., condone, i.e., write off, the 10 to 16-year-old R8 million plus irregular expense identified by the Auditor-General,

  comes from the inability of the investigators to access the supporting documentation required to determine the recoverability of the irregular expense. According to the relevant department heads and executive directors, the procurement committee minutes and all elements thereof cannot be found. The contract that was awarded cannot be found. The related service level agreement cannot be found. Communication records, both digital and paper,

  cannot be found. Proof of work done or goods supplied cannot be found. Invoices from the supplier cannot be found, and payment records to the supplier cannot be found. The only indication that money was spent and that it was irregular is the Auditor-General's notification of the UIFW register for Group Forensic Investigation Services. We know these documents have not been submitted to support the investigations because the relevant heads of departments and their executive directors have signed affidavits to this effect.

  Councillor, try the next one next to you. And there it's on. Councillors, we are having technical problems.

  And now you are screaming again in my mouth.

  Right, can we start again?

  Haai tog, uh-uh.

  Uh-uh, Councillor. IT is busy looking into it.

  Akekho!

  Councillor Suddaby, can you carry on?

  Ubiziwe.

  Thank you. This is just one situation that highlights the dysfunction of the city with respect to protecting documents. The National Records Archive Act 1996, which is only 30 years old, states that all public records must be kept live for 20 years, after which they may be archived, i.e., even after 20 years, there must still be some way to access them. In other words, they must never be lost, they must never be replaced, and they must certainly never be deleted or destroyed.

  Ignorance of the law is no excuse, but to add insult to injury, 30 years after the promulgation of the National Record and Archive Act, the City of Johannesburg still has no document retention policy, and based on the administration's adherence to minimum effort on compliance, no documentation policy equals no document retention. That document retention policy has been in the making for two years. Other policies get to Council in six months. It can be done.

  That policy is not on the agenda for June Council. Strike one. Recommendation is so incestuous as to make one wonder what deformities the results will

  57 seconds, Councillor.

Spoke on

• 27 Aug 2026 · 02:05:44Item 29: Irregular expenditure recovery and regularisation (August 2026)
• 30 Jul 2026 · 00:39:14DA on MPAC report and AG finding
• 22 Jul 2026 · 04:11:06ACDP, PA and DA on Group Finance and GICT
• 24 Jun 2026 · 01:33:26Item 61: Cllr Suddaby (DA)

Offices held

• MMC for Finance · 14 December 2021 to 10 October 2022sourceend date approximate
• MMC for Finance · 25 October 2022 to 27 January 2023sourceend date approximate

Promises

• 30 Jul 2026 · 00:42:28If elected, a DA-led council will demand a full account of all outstanding MPAC and Section 79 committee resolutions.