OWN CORRESPONDENT, Cape Town | Wednesday
The Democratic Party’s Patrick Hill has taken over as metropolitan mayor of Cape Town after William Bantom was forced to resign from the New National Party after being caught with a pornographic video in his office.
NNP provincial leader Gerald Morkel admitted on Tuesday that he had made “an error of judgment” when he did not demand Bantom’s resignation last October when he was first caught downloading pornography off the Internet.
Morkel said he had hoped Bantom would rehabilitate himself.
Bantom, an ordained minister, asked for forgiveness from his family, church, colleagues and friends. “I know I have done wrong and I respect the wishes of my party in asking me to resign,” he said.
The African National Congress accused Morkel of failing the people of the Western Cape by giving Bantom a chance to rehabilitate himself. ANC provincial leader Ebrahim Rasool said Morkel’s failure to act against someone who had broken the law and flouted local government policy “is evidence of a gross failure to give moral and political leadership”.
“We need to be uncompromising in our stand against abuse and molestation of children. At a time when our people are traumatised by the ongoing abuse, rape and molestation of our children, the first citizen of the province turns a blind eye to behaviour which creates a climate for abuse,” Rasool said.
Cape Metropolitan council CEO Stewart Fisher said the council’s information technology staffers had uncovered Bantom’s accessing of pornographic sites. The council had adopted an Internet usage policy last year which outlawed accessing of pornography.
A new mayor for the Cape Town unicity will be elected in the local government elections in November.