Councillor slammed for FB comment

Shayne Ramsay

Shayne Ramsay

Published Nov 27, 2016

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THE DA says it will investigate a Sea Point councillor for a Facebook post in which she slated homeless people in her constituency.

Ward 54 councillor Shayne Ramsay deleted her post she placed on Friday, following a public outcry, in which she classed the homeless in three categories: “Criminals (who are in and out of overcrowded
prisons), mentally retarded or social outcasts, and those who are generally down on their luck".

DA chief whip in the City of Cape Town, and its leader in the metro, Shaun August, said when he was made aware of Ramsay’s post, he had asked her to withdraw it and apologise.

“I will investigate and deal with her if there's any transgression in terms of (DA rules)… This is totally against DA policy. We are totally unsatisfied with what she has done,” said August.

Ramsay, for her part, apologised and said as a new councillor, barely four months into the job, she was on a learning curve.

Mayor Patricia de Lille has been advocating, since she became mayor in 2011, for redress and August added yesterday that “we should really change our mind at how we look at certain issues”.

While stating that “vagrants are also people”, Ramsay placed a condition on tolerating them in Sea Point, stating in her controversial post that “they would have to behave in a manner which is acceptable to other residents”.

She told her constituents that should they have any complaints, to call the City’s law enforcement department for “any indecent public behaviour and for trespassing”.

Ramsay also called on her followers to stop giving to “beggars, street people and car guards”, a move she claimed would force them “to move elsewhere”.

She also blamed South Africa's human rights culture for the City's failure to deal with homelessness.

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