Why axe efficient JP Smith?

THE mooted axing of mayoral committee member Councillor JP Smith from the position of safety and security by Mayor Patricia de Lille is highly disconcerting given that Cape Town ranks among the top 10 most violent cities in the world and is the most violent in South Africa.

Cape Town, with a population of three million, last year recorded 2 541 homicides, or 65 per 100 000, while Durban with the same population recorded half that number. JP Smith has done an outstanding job for the past 15 years trying to keep citizens safe with his hands-on approach to law enforcement.

I have listened to him address our local ratepayers’ association and he came across as highly knowledgeable and extremely passionate about his job. When a good man with an excellent track record may be summarily dismissed/demoted with no good reason then we, as residents of Cape Town, need to ask whether our mayor is afflicted by the contagious disease known as Zumitis, where competent people are replaced by cronies.

South Africans are still reeling from the pain of the Nene/Van Rooyen/Pravin debacle created by our reckless president, so we would expect leaders who wield some power to act with caution when replacing good councillors and ministers.

The DA has presented itself as an alternative to many of the electorate who were left highly disgruntled by the corrupt ANC but when the DA starts behaving like the despicable ANC, then those who voted for the DA in the last municipal elections have every right to ask: “What’s the alternative for the elections of 2019?”

Replacing an experienced person like JP Smith with a complete nonentity like Suzette Little, who has a background in social services, is truly courting disaster and playing with our safety.

Councillor Little has done an atrocious job trying to head and implement the city’s questionable drug policy so I wonder if she is going to bring anything unique to the table when it comes to combating crime in the city.

If the leader of the DA, Musi Maimane, believes campaigning for the 2019 election has begun then a good place for him to start after he rids the city of the “poo thrower” is to tackle the fickle and petty Patty.