Cape Town - George municipality is probing Garden Route municipality PR councillor Iona Kritzinger of the DA for allegedly using a racist epithet on its chief law enforcement officer, Siyasanga Vandala, during a phone call.
On Sunday, Vandala said a criminal complaint had also been lodged and he was so disturbed by Thursday incident, he also took it to the SA Human Rights Commission (SAHRC)
SAHRC provincial chairperson Chris Nissen said it would meet with Vandala today.
“In building South African social cohesion, things like shouting at each other with racist words is completely unacceptable.
“However, we have to wait for the investigation process to begin and be completed and we will communicate findings.”
George’s acting municipal manager Michele Gratz said: “On Friday afternoon, the Speaker of council, Gerrit Pretorius, instructed me to arrange an investigation into the matter.”
A committee of the council would be constituted urgently to deal with the complaint, Gratz said.
Kritzinger, in a statement last night, said she and Vandala spoke on Thursday about a vagrancy issue in Dormehlsdrift, where she represented the DA.
“The conversation was made difficult by poor sound quality. Both Vandala and me complained to each other that it was very difficult for the one to hear the other.
Vandala clearly did not yet know his way about the George suburbs and directions were made more difficult by the poor sound quality.”
She said that on Friday morning she received a phone call alerting her of complaints against her “on the strength of a Vandala claim that I insulted him with an abhorrent racial slur prefixed by a sexually loaded adjective”.
She said she neither cursed nor insulted him. “It is a flagrant lie. It is an egregious fabrication. I did not demean Vandala.
“I reported an incident demanding his immediate professional attention,“ Kritzinger said.
DA constituency head in George, Mimmy Gondwe, said she was aware of the allegation and that the party would support the police probe.
Police spokesperson Malcolm Pojie said a case of crimen injuria was under investigation.
“No arrest has been made, he said.