JP Smith and taxi strike handling at centre of EFF protest at council meeting
Cape Town - A City council meeting descended into chaos as members of the EFF disrupted mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis’s speech to fellow councillors with their protest of the taxi impoundments that led to the recent 8-day strike.
What began as a silent protest by EFF councillors holding banners during the mayoral address became a rowdy brawl between the councillors and council security who had been summoned by speaker Felicity Purchase to eject them.
The banners carried messages about the recent taxi strike and Mayco member for safety and security JP Smith, such as: “JP Smith has blood on his hands” and “JP Smith is killing black economy.”
Speaker Felicity Purchase asked the councillors to stop their silent protest before she “named” them and asked for them to be removed from the meeting. As the speaker was naming the silent protesters, the mayor appeared happy to continue his mayoral address about the revival of the City’s Civic Honours list (see page 3), and said the taxi debate was scheduled for later on.
“I have no objection to silent protests, madam speaker. But I do think that there are some statements ...”
At that point, the EFF councillors in their red overalls began mounting the stage and surrounding the podium, causing the meeting to be adjourned as the speaker left her chair.
The ensuing chaos caused the meeting to be adjourned for over an hour during which other opposition councillors, including from the ANC, lent their support to their comrades from the EFF.
This caused the dissenting parties to be locked out of the meeting which had reconvened in another venue at the Civic Centre to discuss the taxi issue.
Purchase said: “There was a disruption by the EFF, joined by a couple of other parties in the chamber, and we adjourned to allow the chamber to be cleared.
“When it was quite evident that they were not going to leave and wanted to disrupt the meeting for the day, the meeting was reconvened in another venue.
“The opposition parties who were not party to the disruptions joined us, and the rest of the council meeting continued as per the agenda.”
Speaking after the chaos, EFF party leader in council, Ntsikelelo Tyandela, said their demands were threefold.
“First the immediate return of impounded taxis, second the removal of JP Smith as Mayco member for safety security, and third the inclusion of opposition parties in the negotiations such as the taxi task force where at the moment the DA is misusing its majority.”
Leader of the Opposition on the council, Banele Majingo (ANC), said because they were locked out he did not get to utilise the 11 minutes he had been allocated in the taxi debate.
He said: “The ANC calls for the EEE approach to the taxi issue. By this we mean the City must engage the taxi industry, educate the taxi industry and then enforce the law.”
In a video clip from the reconvened meeting, mayor Hill-Lewis lavished praise on Smith for his role in the taxi strike to the audience, who were chanting: “JP! JP!”
Hill-Lewis said that when the pressure of the strike started to mount he and Smith had worked together.
“But through all of that, it meant the world to me to have a reliable and unwavering partner with whom we could go into a dozen or more very tough discussions through that week, and to always know that no matter what anyone else said, we together would hold the line.
“I will never forget that about Alderman Smith,” Hill-Lewis said.
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za