No clarity on Cape Town mayor's ugly spat with top official

Yet another attempt by the ANC to discuss the public spat between Cape Town mayor Patricia de Lille and mayco member JP Smith has been shot down by the council.

In a Safety and Security portfolio committee meeting on Wednesday‚ the party tried to revive their bid to get answers on the matter‚ which involves security upgrades at De Lille’s home and the disbandment of the city’s special investigative unit which fell under Smith.

Chairman of the committee Mzwakhe Nqavashe blocked attempts by the ANC‚ stating the issue could only be discussed at a full council meeting.

During the meeting‚ ANC councillor Khaya Yozi said that Nqavashe had made a ruling in a previous meeting that a presentation by the party about the two matters could be debated during Wednesday’s meeting.

Therefore Yozi wanted to know why the matter had been omitted from the agenda.

“I believe all the councillors here are in agreement that the committee needed to be taken into confidence about this public debate between councillor Smith and the executive mayor‚” said Yozi.

He said they needed the clarity because they could not just follow “narratives of newspapers” while they were members of the Safety and Security committee.

“[We are not being] given the factual information so that we can be able to understand what is really happening with [the two]‚” added Yozi.

But Nqavashe said his ruling had stated that the issue was a political matter for a full council meeting to deal with. “Our portfolio committee doesn’t get involved with any upgrade or increase of security to any councillor that is under threat‚” he said.

Nqavashe said Yozi should not bring political debates in newspapers to the committee.

“You can’t bring political issues that are outside safety and social services‚ irrespective of whose name [was mentioned in the media]‚” said Nqavashe.

But Smith said that in terms of the rules‚ the correct procedure was to bring a motion to the committee.

In last month’s council meeting the ANC was given marching orders after they tried to force questions on the matter ahead of De Lille’s opening speech. The battle between De Lille and Smith had been sparked by a leaked letter that Smith wrote to the DA leadership about the disbandment of the investigative unit.

Smith also hinted that security upgrades to De Lille's home were irregular.

De Lille threatened to take legal action against her colleague but the DA put a lid on the fight when it established a subcommittee‚ chaired by its National Assembly chief whip John Steenhuisen‚ to resolve the matter. The two were then barred from speaking about the matter publicly.