eThekwini municipality speaker Thabani Nyawose has belatedly agreed to conduct an investigation to identify the councillor responsible for alleged racist remarks during a full council meeting on Tuesday.
The incident occurred during a debate on Wednesday over a monument honouring the arrival of indentured Indians in South Africa in November 1860.
DA councillor Yogis Govender had finished her debate when an unidentified councillor remarked “you must go to Bombay”.
Thabani Mthethwa, DA caucus leader, brought Nyawose’s attention to the matter, saying the statement should be “rejected with the contempt it deserves.”
Nyawose agreed, saying it reflected badly on the entire council.
“Whoever said that is wrong. It does not represent or reflect the views of council.”
However, ActionSA leader Zwakele Mncwango told Nyawose his ruling was not enough and advised him to investigate, alleging it had came from an ANC bench.
“I think it’s important to find out who it is (because) it’s a racist statement.”
Nyawose maintained he had made a statement on behalf of council when the matter was raised by Mthethwa, and asked for the issue not to delay council proceedings.
The IFP’s Les Govender supported Mncwango, and said the ruling was “too complacent” and reiterated it was “not acceptable.”
“You need to get to the bottom of that because it’s a racial comment. The council, and you as the person in charge, should get to the bottom of that.”
Nyawose again maintained the speaker’s ruling in council was final and should be respected, even if some did not agree.
On Thursday, the city released a statement stressing Nyawose’s strong condemnation of the racist remark.
Nyawose expressed his outrage, saying: “This is unacceptable, as there is no room for racism in the council or in our country.”
He committed to conduct a thorough investigation to identify the councillor responsible for “divisive behaviour”.
“I will investigate this unfortunate incident to find the culprit, and we will not hesitate to take serious action against any councillor who breaks the rules.”
The National Independent Congress of South Africa (Nicsa) condemned the remark, saying it “equates it to the closet racism that still lurks in the minds of certain bigots still trapped in the laager mentality”.
Nicsa leader Narendh Ganesh said the councillor should be removed.
“The miscreant councillor, who clearly believes in his/her unfounded superiority, in racial terms, is devoid of facts, and is grossly nescient in that the name Bombay in India has been changed to Mumbai. The lack of education of this councillor should be a source of embarrassment to the councillor and his/her party.
“These kinds of remarks, specially in the portals of City Hall, suggests the abyss of racism still exists in the hearts and minds of so-called elected officials who have to and must exhibit the highest levels of integrity and respect for all our people at all times.”
The item under discussion was for the council to grant authority to the premier’s office to use the area along the Ushaka Marine Promenade to erect an 1860 indentured Indian labourers monument.
This was initially approved in 2010 while Zweli Mkhize was the premier to commemorate the 150th anniversary of the arrival of indentured labourers in the country.
The preliminary work into this reached a deadlock when a committee of leaders to represent the Indian community did not agree on the design of the monument, resulting in the R4m allocated by provincial government to the city being returned.
They felt the proposed design, which was a symbol of a bell, was a symbol of colonialism and an insult to them and made a counter proposal that a man and a woman carrying sugar cane was more appropriate.
Fourteen years later the provincial government has resuscitated the project and was looking for suitable land to erect the monument at its own cost and hand it over to the city to be its custodian.
Mncwango supported the initiative but cautioned against commissioning the monument until all disputes around its design are resolved.
“We don’t want to go back to the issue of the King Shaka statue that had to be redone because of the lack of consultation and agreement on the design itself,” he said.
He said it was not clear whether the premier had engaged with representatives of the Indian community and reached a consensus on the design and proposed the matter be referred back to the city’s executive committee to establish and/or resolve that first.
“From the background I have, there has been no engagement and agreement with the (Indian) committee and there were even threats from the leaders that if the monument is erected and they find it insulting they will take it down,” he said.
“Maybe the mayor can be delegated to meet with the committee before the monument is erected as, at this point, it is likely to be a bell, which they feel symbolises colonialism and is an insult to them.”
The DA’s Govender said citing Indian representatives as the cause for the delay was an act of “blame shifting” to cover “inaction and shoddy treatment” of the project, which the party condemned.
She said their research showed the Indian committee from across KwaZulu-Natal had agreed on a design of Indian cane cutters.
“It is alleged that for some reason, one of the ministers replaced this committee with members of the ANC who, in their wisdom, thought a slave bell would be more befitting and that’s when the dispute started.”
She reiterated there are threats that the slave bell monument will be removed if it is erected.
Govender said the party supported the item but called on the city and KwaZulu-Natal government to stop apportioning blame to the Indian community before the racist remark was made.
Mncwango’s proposal to return the matter to the executive committee was shut down and the item was adopted.
TimesLIVE
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