STATEMENT BY BRETT HERRON, GOOD SECRETARY-GENERAL AND MEMBER OF THE WESTERN CAPE PROVINCIAL PARLIAMENT
THE CITY OF CAPE TOWN’S EXTRAORDINARY BY-LAW AMENDMENTS
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No mention of Call to Prayer exemption
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Powers to banish people from the city
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Powers to access individuals’ phones and other electronic devices
29 APRIL 2020
Last year, after the City acted against a 100-year-old mosque in District 6 following a complaint that the adhan (Call to Prayer) constituted a “noise nuisance”, City of Cape Town Mayoral Committee Member, Zaahid Badroodien (DA), said he had suggested amending the city’s Noise Nuisance By-Law in order to exempt the adhan and church bells from the definition of a “noise nuisance”.
A year later, the City has published proposed amendments to the by-law, but the promised exemptions are nowhere to be found. The noise nuisance provisions remain as they were, while the City proposes giving itself a range of new strong-arm powers.
Its proposal that it should have the power to instruct people to leave an area and not return smacks of the apartheid-era Influx Control Act. This power is ultra vires (beyond its authority) and harks back to the days of influx control and the pass laws. No person can have their movement curtailed in the manner proposed by the DA’s City caucus.
The City also proposes assuming the right to seize or copy your electronic information, records or documents. This is a gross invasion of privacy, besides being irrational, since no offence created by the by-law would necessitate the City having access to your electronic devices.
The proposed by-law amendments are clearly intended to target poor, vulnerable and homeless people, and to strengthen the City’s hand as it faces challenges over the way it mistreats homeless people.
Badroodien must come clean on whether the proposed amendments he promised were tabled and, if so, why the DA caucus rejected them.
Ends…