Opposition parties gang up on ‘biased’ City of Cape Town Speaker
City of Cape Town Speaker, Alderman Felicity Purchase, briefly stepped out of a meeting on Monday at the Civic Centre to receive the notice of a motion of no confidence. The motion being brought against her is set to be tabled at the Council meeting set for 27 March.
The motion is being brought against her by a multi-party caucus, led by the ANC and includes other opposition parties such as the EFF, GOOD party, National Coloured Congress (NCC), Patriotic Alliance (PA) and Al Jama-ah.
The multi-party caucus held a briefing on Monday after getting Purchase to sign the receipt of the notice. The parties are seeking for the motion to be tabled due to what they called biased behaviour and use of bullying tactics by Purchase during council meetings.
They feel that Purchase “has persistently displayed a pattern of behaviour which is unbecoming” and that her actions “consistently betray the lawful expectation that the Speaker will at all material times act without fear, favour or prejudice”.
“The Speaker is required to be impartial, however, Councillor Purchase is always biased and protective towards her political party, the Democratic Alliance and its representatives.”
“On numerous occasions the Speaker has acted arbitrarily and with impunity and unilateralism in her attempts to protect the DA and stifle debates in Council,” they said.
They also feel that Purchase undermined the Programming Committee resolution that the first council meeting of 2025 will be physical, and that she “unilaterally changed this decision based on spurious ‘security reasons’”.
Opposition party members gathered outside the Civic Centre last month in protest calling for suspension of Mayco Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith, after a raid was conducted by the Commercial Crimes detectives on his office, and the office of fellow Mayco Member, Xanthea Limberg.
A few days after the raid, the Speaker announced that the Council meeting would occur virtually, and not in person.
ANC councillor Banele Majingo said that their motion comes after concerns regarding the Speaker’s handling of critical matters.
“Our primary concern is the Speaker’s failure to uphold the integrity of Council processes, particularly in relation to the serious allegations against Mayoral Committee members, JP Smith and Grant Twigg.
“The allegation of housing tender fraud, involving Smith, and the improper cancellation of solid waste contracts under Grant Twigg’s watch require urgent impartial intervention. However instead of ensuring accountability the Speaker has presided over a Council that protects certain individuals from scrutiny while undermining the principle of fairness and justice," Majingo said.
Both Smith and Twigg have spoken out against the allegations. Smith said that “political actors have been working on a smear campaign” against him after the raid on his offices. Twigg has previously told the media that he is aware of allegations against him, and has referred them to the Urban Waste management.
Majingo said that Purchase’s handling of these matters has “eroded confidence in her ability to perform her duties independently and fairly”.
“The Speaker’s role is to uphold democratic principles within Council, and not to shield individuals from facing consequences of their actions.”
The EFF’s Banzi Dambuza called Purchase the “most cockiest Speaker the City of Cape Town has ever had” and said the reason why they have submitted the notion so early is so that there are “no excuses” and that there will not be “any delaying tactics in order for it not to come into Council”.
PA’s Cheslyn Steenberg said that they support the motion as they have also experienced the bias of the Speaker and bullying tactics.
“Whilst we are the opposition in Council, we are also here to play an oversight role, and we’re going to do that effectively, however, the actions and behaviour of the Speaker is really trying to stop us from doing that effectively.”
When Purchase was contacted for comment she said: “The Office of the Speaker is aware of a motion submitted by the ANC in the above-mentioned regard, and will follow due process as outlined in the requirements dealing with motions as contained under Rule 18 of the Rules of Order.”
Dambuza added that while there are many questioning how they are going to pull off removing Purchase, "unfortunately, we are not going to be coming here and divulging how we are going to win our war”.
theolin.tembo@inl.co.za