Geordin Hill-Lewis officially elected as Cape Town mayor
City of Cape Town municipal manager Lungelo Mbandazayo passing the mayoral chain to new mayor Geordin Hill-Lewis. Picture. Supplied
Cape Town - The day has finally come, Geordin Hill-Lewis has been officially elected as the mayor of Cape Town.
As expected the 34-year-old received a landslide win with 141 votes at the inaugural council meeting.
Notable, his predecessor Dan Plato was not present at the meeting. The DA’s Eddie Andrews was elected as deputy mayor and Felicity Purchase re-elected as speaker of the council.
“It is the singular honour of my life to address you today for the very first time as the mayor of Cape Town,” said Hill-Lewis after donning the mayoral chain. “I am deeply humbled by the trust you have placed in me to lead this great city into that future. I pledge to work every single day to deepen the trust you have placed in me and this government team I now lead.”
Opposition parties spoke well of the mayor and committed to working with him in bettering the lives of Capetonians.
Leader of the official opposition Xolani Sotashe said they will play their role as the opposition to keep the new mayor in check. He quoted the Freedom Charter and sections of the constitution including municipal act values.
“We will support the mayor if he does not compromise these values, once he becomes arrogant and be dismissive then he would be declaring a war.”
Sotashe said they will give credit when it’s due but at the same time vehemently oppose any anti-poor tendencies. “The mayor’s immediate task is to deal with the raw sewage spillage in the townships and the Cape Flats,” said Sotashe.
Hill-Lewis announced that that the first major commitment of his administration is to increase allocation to free basic services by over R600 million in the next financial year.
“This constitutes a 20% increase in our city’s investment in the free basic services that vulnerable residents rely on the most,” he said.
“It will increase the total amount spent by the City every year on free basic services for the poorest residents from R3.1 billion to R3.7 billion. Today we demonstrate our commitment to building a more inclusive and caring city with this very significant extra allocation to free basic services.”
He also said on his first day in office he will go to Khayelitsha where sewage is flowing on the streets. He promised to make sure that complaints are attended to with the same speed and service excellence no matter where you live in Cape Town
Sandra Dickson from lobby group STOP CoCT said the genuine intent to implement these promises will be tested by the new mayor's choice of mayco members next week.
“There is a huge improvement in the quality of the speeches by councillors in council. Many mentioned the work cut out for the newly elected councillors. The hope is that these promises will be kept and that all Capetonians will be represented in Council equally. The days of a Council delivering for only a few must be over.”
Weekend Argus