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1 month ago
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Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has survived his first motion of no confidence.
- Cape Town mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis survived his first motion of no confidence.
The motion was tabled by the National Coloured Congress during a full council sitting on Wednesday.
- Hill-Lewis called the motion of no confidence “frivolous”.
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis has survived his first motion of no confidence.
The motion was tabled by the National Coloured Congress (NCC) during a full council sitting on Wednesday.
The party accused Hill-Lewis of “abuse of power, lack of professionalism, and failure to fulfil the responsibilities expected of the City’s highest office”.
The vote was conducted via open ballot.
The motion was defeated, with 138 councillors voting against it, 46 in favour, and one abstention.
Before the voting started, Hill-Lewis addressed the council, calling the motion of no confidence “frivolous”.
“I go out of my way to answer each [question] in as much detail as I can. I think most members of this council will attest to this.
“I might even say that answering questions from opposition councillors is my favourite part of council meetings. That’s because, more often than not - and this is particularly true of the NCC - the questions are so bad, you’re just making it too easy to embarrass you,” he snapped.
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The mayor accused NCC members of having “badly prepared questions” during council sittings.
“You [NCC] just put together a few words that sound angry and ‘screamy’ and then vomit them into your microphone and expect us to make sense of them. Nee man! Do better,” he said.
For months, the City and NCC leader, Fadiel Adams, have been going head-to-head.
According to the City, the matter stems from Adams’ Facebook and social media posts made immediately after the Equality Court handed down judgment in favour of the City and the City manager, Lungelo Mbandazayo.
Last month, Mbandazayo opened a crimen injuria case against Adams.
It follows defamatory utterances made by Adams after the Equality Court had ordered him to apologise to Mbandazayo for referring to him as “from the Eastern Cape” during Facebook Live broadcasts in February and March 2023.
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The Equality Court found that Adams’ comments were racially offensive, unfair discrimination, hate speech and harassment.
At the same time, the City is seeking to claw back R1.3 million in damages which Adams’ former movement, Gatvol Capetonian, caused to infrastructure during protests.
In 2021, the City launched a civil claim against both the EFF and Gatvol Capetonian, which was founded by Adams in 2018.
Hill-Lewis said:
I can’t help but wonder if that is the real reason behind this motion - an attempt to get us to back down from that legal action.
“Well, this is not going to please you, but we’re not going to stop. We’re going to continue until we’ve recovered every cent of that money, and Cape Town’s communities and City staff are free from harassment by the NCC,” he said.
NCC councillor Anastatia Davids initially requested voting be done via secret ballot.
Speaker Felicity Purchase declined the request.
Asked for comment, Adams said: “The mayor must have missed my live because I dared them to continue with this legal case against me.
“The mayor and the DA are using the courts to suppress coloured revolt. They only believe in the law when it’s used to put down people of colour. I don’t mind going to court,” he said.
