A city of Cape Town council meeting has descended into chaos today, following an initial silent and peaceful protest by the EFF.
The sitting was dismissed when law enforcement officials and protective services intervened to have the protesting group removed.
Several other parties within the city council joined the EFF, including ANC members, and the Patriotic Alliance.
However, the GOOD Party condemned the actions of the EFF.
The council meeting had a scheduled debate about the violent taxi protest two weeks ago.
Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis started his speech by announcing the re-introduction of civic honours for the first time in 12 years.
EFF members walked to the podium, at first only holding up signs.
Chanting JP must fall, in reference to Mayco member for safety and security, JP Smith, eventually the speaker adjourned the meeting. Law enforcement officers forcefully evicted EFF members, including women.
The meeting was moved to a dining hall, where a quorum was reached. The debate on the taxi strike went ahead, but members of political parties that participated in the protest, including the EFF, were not allowed back inside the room.
City of Cape Town EFF Leader Ntsikelelo Tyandela says, “Our message today was that there must be an immediate stop of the illegal impoundment of taxis that is happening within the taxi industry. There must be an immediate stop to the abuse that is used by the safety and security portfolio. Why we are saying abuse it is because they are targeting the only business we know from the community of blacks, from the community of coloureds. I must register this. We’ve seen a number of police enforcements in this house, whereas in Manenberg, as we speak, there are gunshots every day. We’ve never seen that amount of police that were inside here.”
The GOOD party called for the debate, but they said their speaking time was limited.
The City of Cape Town’s GOOD Party Whip, Jonathan Cupido, says the aim was to point to the law being implemented equally for all and to call out those it says were to blame for the strike.
“What the DA literally did with their 35 minutes was to just justify their stance on how they view the thing, not responding to anything that we said other than political statements. The mayor has not come out at one stage saying that when it comes to the law, I agree with you, councillor, or I agree with the opposition party. But by saying everybody, including Alderman Smith and himself, must abide by the law, he brushed that part away and spoke about other things. So no, we have not achieved what we wanted to achieve. I think the residents of Cape Town are left wanting.”
Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis expressed, among others, during the debate his support for JP Smith.
He says Smith stood firm in the city’s stance that lawlessness would not be tolerated despite the difficult circumstances of attempted intimidation during the strike.
Hill-Lewis says the impounding of vehicles is done within the provisions of the National Land Transportation Act and not city by-laws, as widely reported.
Lewis says it is important for the whole of South Africa that there is a re-commitment to the rule of law. He says lessons were learnt.
“However, it can and should serve as a catalyst to reimagine our public transport and to reform the taxi industry to better serve its passengers and its drivers. The biggest elephant in the room during the crisis was the lack of a functional passenger rail service. If trains had been running, the taxi industry would not have been able to hold Capetonians to ransom. It is imperative that the running of Metrorail be devolved from the national government to the city. When it comes to reforms to the taxi industry itself, the biggest change will come from removing the incentive for bad driver behaviour in order to earn a living. Drivers need to have the same protections under labour laws that employees elsewhere have, including a reasonable wage and reasonable hours. By treating drivers as employees, we can remove the incentive to break rules just to earn a living. That is something we should invest our efforts into making a reality.”
Other political parties in the city, including the Patriotic Alliance and the National Coloured Congress, joined the EFF and said, among others, that the forceful eviction of people from a council meeting was to protect JP Smith.
Meanwhile, the Taxi Task Team had a meeting on Tuesday and is expected
to gather for three days next week.
NOTE: We had initially incorrectly reported that the GOOD Party had joined the party when they have in fact condemned the EFF’s conduct. But we have since corrected that.
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