Cape Town - The Cape Town city council is set to decide on Thursday whether to recommend to the local government MEC that one of its councillors be suspended for a month, without pay, for an anti-Semitic comment posted on Facebook.
In August 2014, the PAC’s Anwar Adams posted: “To hell with worrying about not being anti-sematic (sic), this evil virus must be eliminated as it cannot be reformed, Zionists (sic) is a virus.?
Adams was charged with breaching the councillors’s code of conduct after a complaint from the Jewish Board of Deputies.
In a report to be considered by council, the disciplinary committee said Adams had not denied posting the comment, but pleaded not guilty to the charge against him.
A disciplinary hearing was held over several days and the committee communicated their finding to Adams in February.
In his testimony to the disciplinary committee, Adams said the term “Zionist” was a spelling mistake, and that, while he did not hate Zionists, he hated the ideology of Zionism.
The disciplinary committee also noted that Adams had issued an apology in a letter written in the same month as the offending post.
The city called Daniel Levitt, the executive director of the Cape Council for the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD), as its only witness. Levitt testified that Adams’s comment was disturbing because the perceived threat had been made by a councillor.
Levitt said terms like “virus” and “eliminated” could incite hatred and violence against those who support Israel. It was his view, that Adams’s post was specifically aimed at Jewish individuals as Zionists.
The disciplinary committee debated if the word Zionism had been used instead of Zionist, whether it would still be hurtful or cause harm.
“The majority of the committee felt it makes no difference because of the reference to a virus that must be eliminated. To eliminate can mean to remove or get rid of someone or something and it could have incited harm,” said the committee in its report.
The council’s disciplinary committee has recommended that the council ask Local Government MEC Anton Bredell to suspend Adams for a month without salary. If approved by council and agreed upon by Bredell, Adams will have 21 days in which to appeal the decision.
Adams is the only representative of his party in the city council.
Cape Argus