Patricia de Lille inaugurated as Cape Town mayor

The DA cemented its success in the recent municipal elections in the first Cape Town city council meeting yesterday - but not without jeers and sneers from the ANC.

Having won an outright majority the DA's mayoral candidate, Patricia de Lille, was officially inaugurated after a formal vote in the council.

De Lille received 137 votes, whereas ANC mayoral candidate councillor Tony Ehrenreich got 75. The vote took place after the DA's Dirk Smit was elected as council speaker.

Smit immediately had his work cut out for him in dealing with an unruly and loud council as De Lille delivered her inaugural speech.

Twice he interrupted her to silence the jeers and heckling from the ANC side of the council chamber.

De Lille said: "Throughout my political career, I have fought for the dignity of the poor," to which ANC councillors responded by loudly shouting: "What about open toilets?" Smit then demanded order, to which the ANC responded: "Yes, boss!"

Throughout her speech, De Lille repeatedly mentioned the importance of Nelson Mandela to all South Africans. "As Mamphela Ramphele wrote: 'Mandela the icon belongs to all South Africans as the father of this nation'. It was his vision that brought hope to the nation," she said.

She also took time in her speech to recognise the work of her mayoral predecessors, Helen Zille and Dan Plato. "They fixed this city," she said, to which the ANC responded: "Half of the city!"

Smit implored the ANC's Xolani Sotashe to help control his party.

The DA councillors gave De Lille a standing ovation.

After her speech, De Lille said of the heckling: "It's part of politics. It's not a concern to me. They can only heckle and that's why they lost the election.

"I'm humbled by the confidence that the city of Cape Town put in me and I used that speech today to thank them."

Ehrenreich, who delivered the ANC's response to the speech, said: "We see and experience two different cities. Cape Town is the most unequal city in the world."