IT was smooth sailing for the first virtual meeting of the Kouga Council, which took place on Friday.
Kouga Speaker, Hattingh Bornman, said the virtual meeting was held in accordance with direction 6.7.3 of the amended Covid-19 disaster regulations, as published on May 7.
“According to the regulations, all meetings of Council must be done using media platforms such as teleconferencing and videoconferencing,” he explained.
“The municipality has been making use of both Microsoft Teams and Zoom to host meetings, with the latter being used for our first virtual Council meeting last week.
“This same application is being used this week for Portfolio Committee meetings.”
He said councillors and officials had been trained in using the applications, so as to ensure that effective deliberation, decision-making and oversight could take place despite the Covid-19 lockdown restrictions.
“I would like to thank and congratulate both our councillors and officials for adapting so quickly to this new way of conducting meetings,” he said. “Everyone was well prepared and gave concise but valuable input, which helped to ensure the success of the meeting.” – REPORTER
