City Council Speaker faces no-confidence vote

The GOOD Party has called for a secret vote, in the hopes that dissatisfaction within the DA could be activated

Cape Town Speaker Faces No-Confidence Challenge On Thursday, the GOOD Party lodged a motion of no confidence against Cape Town’s council speaker, Alderman Felicity Purchase, insisting on a secret ballot. The move, spearheaded by GOOD councillor Jonathan Cupido, follows what he termed the “final straw” at last week’s council meeting.

Purchase stands accused of serial lapses in maintaining order, upholding council integrity, and ensuring impartiality—failings said to have tarnished the institution’s standing and sapped public confidence. This is not Purchase’s first brush with such censure.

A multiparty motion in March, led by the African National Congress and backed by the GOOD Party among others, unravelled when a key councillor defected to the Democratic Alliance.

The latest grievances catalogue a litany of alleged missteps: mishandling an incident involving the forcible removal of an opposition councillor, exhibiting bias in disciplinary actions, favouring Democratic Alliance members, and botching voting procedures.

Further charges include unilateral alterations to meeting formats and a refusal to recuse herself from motions tied to her office, flouting legal precedent.

With discontent from smaller conservative and populist parties, such as the NCC, the CIP and the ACDP, the motion could carry some weight, but its success will ultimately depend on the degree of solidarity among DA members, which tends to be fairly high.