Solomon Masehlele Maila

Attendance

Present

58

Leave of absence

6

Absent without leave

0

Arrived late

2

Left early

0

Reasons given for leave: Private business (3), Other (1), Ill health (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

4

Average wait to start

16 s

Average greetings first

7 s

Apology or leave of absence (1)

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

Warned or stopped by the chair (1)

• 26 Aug 2026 · 04:32:05The chair stopped Maila's declaration of vote after the vote had been taken. sitting

In their words

Every time the chair gave them the floor in a transcribed sitting (4), 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.

• 26 Aug 2026 · 04:32:43Item 38 · 2 min 27 s

  Read what they said (258 words)

  Yeah, no thanks very much uh Madam Speaker. My apologies, I I I was ready to fire on all cylinders. Um Madam Speaker, I I think the point has been made that um as the DA we would like to place it on record that um we stand opposed to item 38.

  Council has been expressly informed in its own report that the preferred candidate was flagged as high risk by the Special Investigating Unit and that GFIS identified negative information indicating a potential security risk to the City of Johannesburg. Despite this Madam Speaker, Council is being asked to approve a permanent appointment

  as head of department at Public Safety while material SIU security vetting and integrity processes remain unresolved. If council nevertheless approves this appointment, the DA reserves its rights to approach the High Court to review and set aside the decision. We further place it on record Madam Speaker, we further place it on record

  that we intend placing every single councillor on notice that the contents of item 38, including the identified security and integrity risks were before council when this decision was taken. Should subsequent legal proceedings establish that the decision was unlawful, irrational, taken in bad faith or in reckless disregard of the information before council,

  the DA will seek every appropriate remedy available in law, including appropriate cost orders where legally justified. In terms of Rule 84 Madam Speaker, we request that the DA's opposition to item 38 be formally recorded in the minutes of today's council proceedings. I thank you.

• 26 Aug 2026 · 04:31:20Item 38 · 35 s

  Read what they said (77 words)

  Thank you very much uh Madam Speaker. I rise in terms of rule 83 of the standing rules and orders of council to just place it on record um that the DA, the Democratic Alliance, wishes to make the following declaration of vote. We place it on record that the DA opposes item 38. Council has been expressly informed in its own report

  that the preferred candidate was flagged as high risk by the Special Investigating Unit

• 26 Aug 2026 · 04:17:23Item 38 · 3 min 20 s

  Read what they said (340 words)

  Madam Speaker, I rise in terms of rule 93, subrule 1C, of the standing rules of orders and orders of council, and on behalf of the Democratic Alliance, to introduce a motion without notice postponing item 38. I have a signed written copy here with me for the Secretary

  to Council. The motion, Madam Speaker, reads as follows: I hereby move in terms of rule 93, subrule 1C, of the standing rules and orders of council 2016 as amended and on behalf of the Democratic Alliance that consideration and decision on item 38 be postponed pending

  the finalization of the outstanding Special Investigating Unit's investigation, any personnel suitability assessments, any security vetting, integrity checks and related processes expressly referred to in item 38. And pending the outcomes thereof being placed before council to enable council to make a fully informed decision regarding the appointment of the head of department, uh public safety,

  in the City of Johannesburg. Madam Speaker, the motivation um says item 38 records that the second personnel suitability check conducted by GFIS found that the preferred candidate had been flagged as high risk by the Special Investigating Unit and that negative information existed indicating a potential security risk for the City of Johannesburg.

  The report further confirms that the relevant SIU investigation and additional vetting processes remain outstanding and proposes enhanced conditions of appointment specifically to mitigate those unresolved risks. Council is therefore being requested to approve a permanent appointment to the position of head of department, public safety, before the integrity, security, and suitability processes

  identified in the city's own report have been finally determined. This motion, Madam Speaker, does not seek to make any finding of guilt or misconduct against the candidate. It seeks only to ensure that council does not make a permanent appointment to this sensitive public uh safety position until the outstanding processes referred to in item 38

  You have 59 seconds left.

  have been finalized and council provided with the information necessary to properly exercise its decision-making responsibilities. I so move.

• 22 Jul 2026 · 07:05:2225 and 26 · 7 min 4 s

  Read what they said (809 words)

  Madam Speaker, your worship, the Executive Mayor, the honorable the Leader of the Official Opposition, the honorable the Whip of Council, honorable members of council, the City Manager and your top management team, the people of Johannesburg, greetings and salutations.

  In the early hours of the morning of the 24th of June 2026, I received numerous calls from members of the Johannesburg Metropolitan Police Department, who informed me that their patrol police vehicles that the city is leasing from Afrirent were grounded overnight because this government had once again failed to pay the service provider.

  Many of these police officers were busy patrolling our streets in execution of their crime prevention mandate to protect and serve the 6 million residents of the city when their vehicles were remotely switched off by Afrirent, leaving them stranded and vulnerable to possible criminal attacks in the dead of night. What was even more painful to me as a trained police officer

  is that some of these stranded police officers had to call their family members and other relatives to come and fetch them from their various areas of deployment while members of this executive slept comfortably in their homes. Such is the government we have in the City of Johannesburg right now, a government that simply does not care. That's why both the MMC and the Chairperson

  are not in the chamber right now. Just in case the people of Johannesburg have forgotten who is governing their city at the moment, let me remind them. The current coalition that is responsible for this gross abdication of responsibility comprises the following parties among others: First,

  is the African National Congress, the Economic Freedom Fighters, the Patriotic Alliance, the Inkatha Freedom Party, which is also not in the chamber right now, the Al Jama-ah party, the African Independent Congress, and seven other insignificant political parties

  with each representing just a mere 0.37% of the political parties in our esteemed council. I have, Madam Speaker, over the years had the privilege of visiting and interacting with many different police forces on the continent and around the world. I have never come across a police force that runs on leased motor vehicles

  over which it has no control. But this ANC-led administration believes it is right to rent police vehicles from a private company that has the power to remotely switch off a police vehicle regardless of the policing operation which that police vehicle is involved in at the time of its grounding. When the grounding happened, Madam Speaker, we were only 5 days away from threatened anti-migrant protest marches

  in the city on the 30th of June 2026, which were to be policed by the JMPD in support of the South African Police Service and other law enforcement agencies. I shudder to imagine how we would be able to protect the safety and security interests of the people of Johannesburg when we cannot even guarantee the availability of operational police vehicles. The Democratic Alliance notes the third quarter performance report

  of the Department of Public Safety for the 2025/2026 financial year with a great deal of disappointment. The department is hugely underfunded as we speak and it is in the process of getting defunded. We still don't have a full-time HOD. The department is unable to recruit additional police officers to replace those that are leaving the system due to natural attrition and other reasons. By-law enforcement

  exists only on paper, as many of our pavements have literally become vehicle repair workshops, and liquor outlets and noise pollution are a persistent nuisance. The department has become one of the biggest contributors to the city's unauthorized, irregular, fruitless, wasteful and fruitless and wasteful expenditures, with hundreds of millions of rands wasted on perpetual overtime payments

  due to the inadequate numbers of police officers in JMPD. To add salt to the injury, the department has had a contract, as my colleagues have already mentioned, for speed law enforcement that lapsed on the 23rd of December last year. More than 7 months later, there is still no new contract in place to deter speedsters and to prevent road traffic collisions and fatalities

  as part of our traffic policing mandate in line with Section 64E(a) of the South African Police Service Amendment Act 83 of 1998. But there is hope on the horizon, Madam Speaker. Judging from our performance as a party during the first voter registration activities last month, where the DA was present at almost 100% of all voting districts across the city,

  we are confident that the people of Johannesburg, particularly DA voters, will be ready to come out in their numbers on the 4th of November 2026 to overwhelmingly vote for the DA and elect Gogo Helen Zille as the next mayor of this great city that we so love very deeply. I thank you.

Spoke on

• 26 Aug 2026 · 03:44:10Item 37: Cllr Mzolo's speech and unparliamentary language rows
• 26 Aug 2026 · 04:02:11Item 38: Procedural dispute over DA motion without notice
• 26 Aug 2026 · 04:17:15Cllr Maila moves motion to postpone item 38
• 26 Aug 2026 · 04:31:05Item 38: Head of Department Public Safety debate (DA, GOOD, ActionSA, EFF)
• 22 Jul 2026 · 06:55:29Items 25-26: Public Safety performance

Promises

• 26 Aug 2026 · 04:34:15The DA intends to put every councillor on notice about the security and integrity risks in item 38, and to seek legal remedies including costs if the decision is found unlawful.