'Zuma must fall' banner removal prompts City of Cape Town to probe councillors

19 January 2016 - 17:58 By Aphiwe Deklerk
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Image shared on Twitter by Ian Bredenkamp‏@IanBredenkamp captioned "Someone with big balls & deep pockets put this billboard up in Long st #CapeTown today #ZumaMustFall via @theKLIQUE"
Image shared on Twitter by Ian Bredenkamp‏@IanBredenkamp captioned "Someone with big balls & deep pockets put this billboard up in Long st #CapeTown today #ZumaMustFall via @theKLIQUE"
Image: Ian Bredenkamp‏@IanBredenkamp via Twitter

ANC councillors in the City of Cape Town may soon face the music for their participation in the tearing down of the #Zumamustfall banner at city building on Saturday afternoon.

This is after City of Cape Town speaker, Dirk Smit, issued a statement saying he was investigating the conduct of ANC councillors who participated in vandalising a billboard with the words "Zuma Must Fall" in the Cape Town CBD.

Led by Xolani Sotashe, ANC's Cape Metro chairman and chief whip, the party's members climbed on top of the building in the corner of Orange and Kloof streets and tore the gigantic billboard.

It is still not known who paid for the billboard as Brent Dyssell, director of Independent Outdoor Media which owns the advertising spot, refused to name the sponsors, saying only it "was sponsored by a concerned non-racial private South African initiative”.

Smit said today (Tuesday) he was looking at footage from Saturday.

The City of Cape Town last week had said the billboard was illegal and they had referred the matter for prosecution.

"I will carefully go through the footage I have received and, if necessary, will call for witnesses to give testimony on the level of participation of the councillors," said Smit.

He said if it was found the councillors were in breach of the code of conduct for councillors, they would refer the matter to the city's disciplinary committee and to the police should there have been illegal action by the councillors.

Smit declined to say if a complaint had been received or if the investigation was his own initiative.  

Sotashe said the party's lawyers were ready for any action taken against the party.

"For the speaker to say he is going to investigate ANC councillors, that's a big mistake. It's not councillors who were there, it is ANC itself, so there is no way that he will divorce the councillors from the ANC," said Sotashe.

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