GOOD Press Statement by Jonathan Cupido,
GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor
14 August 2023
The City of Cape Town Speaker Felicity Purchase has denied GOOD’s request for an urgent and special council meeting, in terms of Rule 6.6 and 6.7 of the Rules of Order, to consider and debate the catastrophic taxi strike as a matter of urgent public importance.
The Speaker responded to GOOD saying “calling a Special Council meeting, and setting aside an entire meeting (which requires time, and City resources which could rather be better spent on continuing to assist with the aftermath of said strike), is not the most effective approach.”
As the GOOD party, we find the response disrespectful to the residents of Cape Town.
She is failing to execute her role as the leader of the oversight body and is instead opting to protect her DA colleagues.
The Speaker has acknowledged that the taxi stay away is a matter of public interest yet thinks it can be debated when it’s convenient.
When the Speaker of the council chooses to protect party members, instead of fulfilling her role as the presiding officer of the council whose duty it is to exercise oversight over the Mayor and his executive, she fails the test of impartiality and she fails our democracy.
The Speaker refers to resources being better spent “assisting with the aftermath” but as GOOD we are not aware of any council resources being used to benefit the public.
An urgent meeting called by SANTACO today reiterates our fears that the issue regarding the previous impoundments remains unclear.
An agreement was reached between the City of Cape Town and SANTACO on Thursday evening. But by Sunday, SANTACO expressed dismay that taxis continued to be impounded.
Taxi operators believe vindictive policing operations are unfairly targeting their operations.
The city’s leadership needs to urgently come out and be transparent about the previous impoundments that sparked the violent unrest.
SANTACO’s statement last week clearly indicates that they were under the impression the city admitted to unlawful impoundments. “… there is an agreement that the next 14 days will be utilised to work towards the release of the vehicles that were wrongly impounded.”
But Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith took to Facebook to stick to his guns that the city’s impoundments are lawful and only for major offences “We issue 50 times more fines than we impound vehicles, despite the fact that each of those offences permit for impoundment in terms of the law… we are quite confident that we are already only impounding public transport vehicles for serious offences such as moving violations that create a risk of accident and loss of life…”
The DA-led City of Cape Town needs to provide details, to not only SANTACO but to the residents, if vehicles were legally impounded under the National Land Transport Act or if there has been a misrepresentation of the law under the City’s new by-laws.
The GOOD Party is disappointed by the Speaker’s decision however we do acknowledge her agreement to allow the council to debate the issue for an hour on the 24th of August, during an Ordinary Council meeting.
Media Enquiries:
Jonathan Cupido, GOOD City of Cape Town Councillor
Cell: 084 865 8122
Email: jonathanc@forgood.org.za
Samantha Jackson, GOOD Acting Media Manager
Cell: 083 550 9875
Email: media@forgood.org.za