Councillor Faried Achmat filed a motion of no confidence against the speaker of council, Councillor Felicity Purchase
Al Jama-ah at its core believes in representing the communities who support us. Al Jam-ah therefore reiterates the sentiment that we are deprived of operating at our peak.
As per the speaker, it is within her right to use discretion regarding whether meetings are held online or in person. However, we agree that there are far too many instances where we are deprived of speaking openly on certain matters.
It is an expectation, through our experience, that mics will be muted during meetings. This violation hinders healthy debates within the council and the ability of councillors to relay feedback accurately to the communities that we are entrusted to serve as a City.
As a united platform, representing diverse communities, we cannot allow parties to use our tools as weapons to silence what
they do not want to deal with it.
It is also common practice for certain members” to be insulting and degrading toward councilors in their feedback without any comment or request to revoke such comments from the Speaker of the City of Cape Town. Al Jama-ah does not believe that this is in line with how we govern as one united community in representing the needs and the voice of the South African people.
We are all advocates of our parties; however, we must collectively understand the importance of leadership acting without bias and delivering service that represents all South Africans and follows the rules set out for the council.
Al Jama-ah therefore urges that we never allow the violation of the rights of councillors to speak on behalf of their communities