Chaos as ANC barred from meeting

Published Jan 29, 2015

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Cape Town - In a foretaste of the ANC-DA political battle in Cape Town ahead of the 2016 local government elections, this year’s first full council sitting descended into chaos, with some ANC councillors seen throwing punches on Wednesday.

The tension between the political rivals was palpable from the onset as mayor Patricia de Lille and the ANC, led by Tony Ehrenreich, locked horns over issues that included services, MyCiTi bus routes and the renaming of Table Bay Boulevard after former president FW de Klerk.

ANC councillors heckled De Lille during her opening speech in which she listed a number of projects the city would undertake.

Matters turned personal when Ehrenreich questioned De Lille’s budget allocations.

“R27 million has been given to communities that have desperate (service delivery) backlogs, yet you spend R40m on what is the city’s party gimmick, called the World Design Capital, to host multimillion-rand parties for the wealthy,” Ehrenreich said.

An angered De Lille fired back: “I am so glad that 2016 is soon approaching so that the ANC can get another leader for the opposition. We still have another 15 to 16 months left to listen to the same stuck record. The ANC is clowning around.

“I cannot debate in clown politics. Please can I ask that the ANC get a better leader.”

The contentious renaming of Table Bay Boulevard dominated the agenda, with De Lille saying she knew the ANC opposed renaming it after De Klerk. “They are opposed to progressive politics and anything that is not backward-looking and embraced by the cold hands of racialised politics. This does not surprise me. The ANC has no vision for Cape Town,” she said.

Tempers flared when the eviction of Wynberg and Plumstead residents to make way for the MyCiTi trunk route came up. ANC councillors compared the move to forced evictions during apartheid.

 

Speaker Dirk Smit’s indication for a vote on the matter came under fire from ANC councillors, who accused him of not giving them a fair chance to debate the issue.

The ANC then asked to caucus and, on their return to the chamber, found that the meeting had proceeded without their input. ANC councillors were outraged. The Speaker’s calls for order were drowned out by ANC councillors banging on desks while chants of “no” rang out. Smit then ordered the ANC to leave and the hall to be vacated.

The council sitting was moved to another room, with many DA councillors also shut out as metro police blocked ANC councillors from getting in. Chaos erupted when ANC members tried to force their way in, resulting in a tussle between some ANC councillors and metro police officers. There was shoving and pushing as ANC councillors tried to storm the room.

In the fracas, a journalist from Die Burger had her cellphone knocked out of her hand by an ANC councillor. The same councillor tried to slap DA councillor Ian Iverson’s cellphone from his hand. She told Iverson, who was involved in an altercation with a resident last year, that this was “not Claremont” and that he could not photograph her.

For the next two hours, ANC councillors tried to get in while remaining DA councillors were gradually escorted into the room, where ACDP and FF Plus councillors participated in the discussions.

The hasty relocation of the council meeting by the Speaker also put paid to the ANC’s plans to bring a motion of no confidence against De Lille for several issues, including the treatment of the minstrels and the resignation of top black managers.

Later Ehrenreich, at a press briefing with Al Jamah, said the ANC’s exclusion was an attempt by De Lille to avoid contentious issues and a pending vote of no confidence in her. Ehrenreich said opposition parties, along with “disheartened” DA councillors, would be the “outright majority” in securing De Lille’s removal.

“The ANC will be taking this matter to the Minister of Co-operative Governance. This goes against the constitution.”

ANC chief whip Xolani Sotashe said the DA had deliberately agitated the ANC so that it could stifle debate about sensitive issues.

“We intercepted information that the DA had been crafting a strategy.”

The Al-Jamah party said the DA got “cold feet” and did not want to debate issues such as the demolition of Plumstead houses. “We are very concerned that constitutional principles are not being respected.”

De Lille also called a press conference later. She said the full agenda was completed and among motions passed was the renaming of Table Bay Boulevard.

“The behaviour of the ANC today is a disgrace.This is part of their campaign to make the city ungovernable. We have been elected to do a job and we will do that at all costs.”

She said councillors had behaved “like thugs”.

Smit said a culture of disrupting meetings had developed in the city. Council meetings cost the ratepayer about R500 000 per session, and as the custodians of the public purse, the meeting could not be cancelled despite the ANC’s efforts.

He said he would seek legal opinion on Thursday for possible disciplinary action against councillors caught on camera assaulting DA councillors.

JP Smith, mayoral committee member for safety and security, said the meeting had to continue so that the adjustments budget, which allowed for an additional funding allocation for extra law enforcement, could be approved. “This is not a game.”

 

Earlier in the meeting, De Lille has used her mayoral speech and the street renaming to announce a new “Mayor’s Inclusive City” campaign.

“I want to create a platform where we can address these difficult issues in our city and confront what makes some people feel excluded and other people feel entitled.”

De Lille said racial issues, such as the vehement objections from some to the De Klerk renaming, showed that racial issues had come to the fore in the city in recent weeks. “The recent spate of racist attacks demonstrates that some in our society are stuck in past attitudes and prejudices, including some in the ANC that use insulting phrases such as ‘darkies’ to describe people. Their actions must be condemned in the strongest terms.”

She said the city’s decision to support the De Klerk name was about “reconciliation and building a South Africa that belongs to everyone”.

De Klerk’s February 2 1990 speech was the catalyst for shaping a new country, she said. “The struggle for which so many people, so many of my friends and comrades gave their lives, had an end in sight.”

She acknowledged that to many the gestures of reconciliation were difficult, but that this was required by real leadership.

“And in the spirit of reconciliation, the reconciliation that Tata Madiba believed in, the council should consider the proposal to rename Table Bay Boulevard after Mr De Klerk.”

Tony Ehrenreich, as leader of the opposition, accused De Klerk of being the “poster boy of apartheid”.

* During the initial debate on the demolition of Plumstead houses, held when the full council was still sitting in the Chamber, Neilson, also the mayoral committee member for finance, said the city would not let the concerns of 26 tenants – of which 18 are in arrears on their municipal accounts – derail a MyCiTi transport plan that will benefit 1.4 million commuters and 35 communities. “It’s time for these people to pack up their bags and go.”

He added that the 18 defaulters, who owe the city R4.5 million in unpaid rentals, were the ones who had acted with dishonesty by not honouring their rental agreements.

Brett Herron, the mayoral committee member for Transport for Cape Town, said he was “not ashamed” to fight for the rights of the communities from the south-east metro, including Mitchells Plain and Khayelitsha, that would benefit from the new trunk road.

Phase 2 of the MyCiTi network, that includes the Lansdowne/Wetton RoadCorridor, would require an investment of R4.1 billion for infrastructure.

Herron emphasised Neilson’s argument by listing the defaulters, referring to them as “tenant one, tenant two”, and the amounts outstanding which ranged from R238 000 to R540 000 per household.

“This is who the ANC is fighting for at the expense of 1.4 million people.”

Neilson said the city had to move quickly with its plans to demolish 26 houses located on the road reserve so that work could start on the MyCiTi project.

The councilapproved the demolition of four houses in Rotherfield, Lympleigh and Waterbury roads in Plumstead despite vociferous objections from the ANC.

He said the tenants were given ample time to move out.

But Peter Gabriel, of the ANC, said the council was being asked to condone an illegal action. “The demolition of the houses was done illegally because it had not yet been passed by this council.”

Contractors moved on to the four properties last month to dismantle the structures.

Neilson said the four properties were dilapidated, but Gabriel charged that the city had deliberately let the houses fall into a state of disrepair so that they could be demolished.

Of the affected residents whose leases expire on Saturday, he said: “They will be forced to move from their houses just like during apartheid.”

Gabriel said the city’s singling out of eight tenants for alternative accommodation, based on their payment records with the municipality, was a “divide and rule” tactic.

“We have tenants in council-owned holiday houses that have been running up rental arrears for years with no action being taken against them.”

Cape Times and Cape Argus

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