Cape Town - The National Council Congress (NCC) leader Fadiel Adams has challenged Cape Town Mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis to a public debate after he was accused of leaking information about raids at the Civic Centre.
He explained that on Wednesday, he met with Provincial Police Commissioner Lieutenant-General Thembisile Patekile to find out about the search which was conducted by the Commercial Crimes detectives in Safety and Security Mayoral committee member (Mayco) Alderman JP Smith and Xanthea Limberg’s offices.
The raid left many opposition parties calling for his suspension last Friday. A few days later, the Speaker announced that the council meeting would take place virtually instead of in-person.
Opposition parties announced that they would take the meeting to the Civic Centre.
They arrived before 10am on Thursday accompanied by their members, who chanted Struggle songs and called for the suspension of Smith and Limberg. The councillors were barred from entering the building and there was a fight between EFF councillors and the police.
They ended up using another entrance.
In a joint statement, the opposition said: “To voice our contempt for the DA’s inaction, as the opposition will be attending the first City Council meeting in council chambers even if their DA counterparts will not.
“However, we will not be logging on to the online session which we believe is just a farce to protect Smith and Limberg from public scrutiny.
“As opposition parties, we are jointly united in our call for Smith and Limberg to step down or be suspended pending the outcomes of the investigation.”
Hill-Lewis left the meeting for a few minutes to address the media outside his office.
“The police made it clear that at this stage, it was an inquiry, that they are looking into the names mentioned in that so-called ledger book.
“There is simply nothing before me that gives me justification to remove Alderman Smith.
“I think that he is an essential part of this city’s success, and does an amazing job to lead our metro police and law enforcement to keep our city safer.
“Until that changes and I see something substantiated before me, that is my decision now.”
Hill-Lewis said in the case of former Mayco member for Human Settlements Malusi Booi, he received a detailed briefing about school fees paid and transactions at Louis Vuitton.
“Which have now come out. It was shocking to me, I put out a set of questions for explanation, and there wasn’t one. And based on that, I made a decision.”
Last Friday, DA’s Federal Chairperson Helen Zille and Smith said they had been made aware of the raid sometime before the execution. Adams went to open a case at the Cape Town Central police station against Zille for defeating the ends of justice.
Hill-Lewis accused Adams of being the main source who leaked the information about the search warrant.