Ward 51 councillor in Langa dismissed the allegations levelled against him in a statement by the City’s mayco member for safety and security JP Smith last week on Wednesday 20 April as a lie and unfounded.

JP Smith wrote on social media that Lwazi Phakade lied about Fire and Rescue Service being prevented from doing their work lat Joe Slovo informal settlement in Langa on Saturday 16 April.

In response, Phakade accused Smith of playing party politics during the crisis.

“Smith was suppossed to be there but he didn’t come till now. What he is saying is hearsay. I cannot bother myself by talking to the person who is leading the people by wifi or bluetooth. He must come to the ground. Smith has dismally failed to execute his mandate which is to serve the people,” said Phakade.

He said he is standing by his utterances that there were no community members who had disturbed the Fire and Rescue Services to execute their job. “Anywhere where there’s a crisis there will always be some criminal elements. The people who did that to the firefighters were not from Slovo, they were coming from outside,” said Phakade.

Smith stated that he stands by his statement that he wrote on social media.

“Yes, I am aware of councillor Lwazi Phakade’s comments which is why I issued the rebuttal on my social media page with proof of the hoses that were cut. As indicated in the original post, it is incomprehensible that people would sabotage firefighter’s efforts in this manner. But unfortunately it is not a new phenomenon,” said Smith.

When City Vision asked if there will be any action taken by the City against Phakade if the City finds him breaching the City’s Code of Conduct, the City’s Speaker, Felicity Purchase said in order for the office of the speaker to investigate any complaint brought forward against a councillor of the City of Cape Town Metropolitan Municipality the complainant must be formally submitted to the office in writing (preferably via email) and the exact nature and details of the allegations must be provided in full so that the matter may formally investigated in keeping with the complaints procedures and complying with all stipulations in accordance with the applicable legislation and the Code of Conduct for Councillors. She said it must also be noted that often sanctions imposed by the disciplinary committee in terms of a breach of the Code Conduct for Councillors do not always result in the removal of a councillor, but may take the form of a formal warning, a reprimand, suspension and a fine.