The Western Cape chapter of the ANC has launched an offensive against the DA-run City of Cape Town in a bid to gain answers over allegations the City, and several of its members may have had illegal dealings with local drug lords and gang bosses. The party has called on outgoing DA-leader, Helen Zille to make public any funding or donations received through these alleged dealings.

One of the most notable accusations is that the City may have indirectly paid ‘protection money’ to gang bosses or members in the less affluent areas of Cape Town, for the safeguarding of council property in these respective areas. Mayco Member for Safety and Security, JP Smith has bared the brunt of most of these allegations, after he made public several emails and correspondences detailing the situation.

ANC Western Cape spokesperson, Cobus Grobler said there was clear indication that several individuals indirectly contracted by the City for security at these sites, held some form of gang affiliation. According to him, there were also clear indications that money had been paid to gangsters for protection services.

“He (Smith) has admitted there is a problem, and that is a transgression of the ‘POCA act’. This is a protection of organised crime act, which prevents one from aiding or giving benefit to gangsters,” he stated.

He further suggested that amongst the areas where such contracts had taken place was Manenberg, an area that has in recent years been riddled with gang violence.

Grobler was also critical of Smith’s choice of absolving his own department of blame, and shifting the matter to Mayco member for Human Settlements, Benedicta van Minnen instead. Van Minned herself had since issued a statement noting that her department had investigated the matter, and found nothing of note that would need to be reported to the police.

“You can’t have both truths. Nothing to report to SAPS, but he claims he reported it and he is the whistle-blower,” claimed Grobler.

Responding to the claims, Smith lambasted the ANC, as well as Cosatu’s Tony Ehrenreich on what he described as ‘false allegations’, adding that he would be seeking court action against them.

The personal claims against Smith suggested him may have been responsible for the fact that one of the City’s contractors working on housing development, may have employed gang affiliated staff. However, he insisted this was nothing more than a ‘malicious’ campaign by the ANC against him.

“The joke of it is that I am the whistle-blower in this case, and my emails from December last year, in which I unpack this situation, are in the public domain. They know full well these statements they are making are untrue and amount to a smear campaign, so I am not going to let them get away with this one,” he insisted.

Having convened a meeting in November with relevant stakeholders, including the contractors in question, Smith said he had received assurances that they had not conducted such employments.

“The problem is that not everybody with an alleged gang connection has a criminal record,” he noted.

As for Grobler’s call for him to provide a case number as evidence that the City were taking action, Smith said could not be possible as the issue remained a human settlements one, as they were the contraction authority dealing with housing developments. VOC (Mubeen Banderker)