Freedom of speech should not violate the rights of others

04 June 2025

The matter of unbecoming, disruptive and unruly behaviour that continues to plague us in the Council chambers is something I have addressed at almost every Council meeting with councillors from all respective parties, both publicly and privately and with the party whips in numerous Programming Committee meetings held prior to our Council meetings.

I am not happy with the way proceedings unfolded during Wednesday’s Council meeting as regards general behaviour in chambers, and with how emotions escalated during Cllr Jack Miller’s speech, forcing his subsequent removal.
 
I was presiding over a meeting where tempers flared, emotions ran high and several councillors were asked to leave in order for the meeting to continue.
 
A GOOD councillor was asked to leave after causing numerous disruptions during the course of the meeting, including Cllr Miller’s speech in particular.
 
I then received numerous points of order from several parties who indicated that they found Cllr. Miller’s remarks, his terminology and his referral to certain residents as “economic migrants from the Eastern Cape” to be insulting and offensive and requests were put to me as the presiding officer that Cllr Miller be asked to withdraw his remarks.
 
I initially indicated that councillors who were offended by Cllr Miller’s remarks, could, as per usual practice, put a complaint to my Office for investigation in terms of the Code of Conduct for Councillors.
 
This was not acceptable to a large proportion of councillors who felt offended by Cllr Miller’s remarks, and the situation and unhappiness with both Cllr Miller’s remarks and his presence in chambers began to escalate increasingly, to the point where numerous councillors stormed his seat in the Council chambers, causing me to fear for his imminent injury as the security staff were too far on the edge of the Council chambers to get to him in time to prevent a physical confrontation.
 
I affirm my view and belief that all councillors have a right to freedom of speech in any committee of Council as protected by the Western Cape Privileges and Immunities Act, however such freedom is also subject to our Council's Rules of Order and the Code of Conduct for Councillors.
 
Maintaining order in such a volatile situation is a delicate balancing act. While Cllr Miller certainly has a right to his freedom of speech, many councillors present in chambers felt his remarks, and the context he used them in, were offensive and constituted hate speech. This recalled sensitive issues about the freedom of movement of persons in South Africa and persons moving to the Western Cape and the City of Cape Town for economic opportunities.
 
As Speaker I had to decide whether to allow Cllr Miller to remain in chambers despite what was becoming a highly volatile and potentially dangerous, violent situation for him and others; or ask him to reconsider apologising or withdrawing the term which many councillors found offensive; as the behaviour and level of reaction and shouting in chambers made it clear that the meeting would not be able to progress without this matter being settled.
 
I requested Cllr Miller to stop interjecting while I was attending to points of order from other councillors so that order could be maintained and to permit us to move on with the item under discussion.
 
Neither of these options was acceptable to Cllr Miller and he declined to withdraw his comments.
 
I then had to make a decision between disorder and possible violence in Council, much of this directed at Cllr Miller by many other councillors, or allowing the meeting to proceed peacefully without one councillor.
 
I consequently made a ruling in accordance with Rule 30.2 of the Rules of Order and asked Cllr Miller to please leave chambers - an instruction he refused. This refusal of my instruction and ruling resulted in him being removed from chambers by security personnel.
 
As Speaker, I do not want to have to keep calling for order and assistance from the party whips or law enforcement when proceedings become unruly and disruptive. Nor do I want to continuously ask councillors to leave chambers or have them removed. This does not create a dignified governance and decision-making environment, nor does it permit for the effective functioning of debate and democracy.
 
Over the last few years, I and many other long-serving councillors have seen the state of decorum and respect shown to myself as the Speaker and Chairperson of these meetings, to the Mayor, Mayoral Committee Members and fellow councillors, degenerate at an alarming rate with interjections, heckles, disruptions, demonstrations, unruly behaviour, violence and spurious points of order or clarity raised, seemingly done with the sole intention of disrupting Council proceedings.
 
While this kind of unruly, unbecoming and disorderly behaviour has become a trend – having stemmed in National Parliament – I try my utmost to limit it in our Council chambers.
 
Ultimately, we meet in Council on serious business and our chief objective should be to consider matters which enable and effect meaningful change and service delivery in the lives of the very many residents of this City who voted for us to represent them. And we cannot do that when councillors disrupt proceedings because they are being obstructive, disagree with the point of view or speech of another councillor or refuse to follow my instructions or rulings – whether they agree with them or not - to the point where the meeting cannot continue.
 
While Cllr Miller did not obey my instructions and was accordingly removed, the mob behaviour displayed by many other councillors and threats of violence by storming his seat in the council meeting, was completely unacceptable.
 
To this end, I have agreed to meet with Cllr Miller to clear the air with him.
 
If I applied the same standards being demanded by many councillors in the last Council meeting, I would forthwith be forced to demand apologies and effect the removal of councillors very frequently based on what would be considered by many to be inappropriate and offensive remarks, which have by-and-large been tolerated as part of robust debate.
 
This is something I will be settling in the next meeting with the whips of all the other parties.
 
 
End

Published by:
City of Cape Town, Media Office