Advocate Geoff Budlender will not be conducting the investigation into the City of Cape Town’s ”spy” affair, mayor Helen Zille announced on Monday.
”It has come to my attention that advocate Geoffrey Budlender previously provided advice to the legal adviser of the [council] speaker [Dirk Smit] regarding a potential interdict of councillor [Badih] Chaaban,” she said in a statement.
”I was not aware of the speaker’s instruction to advocate Budlender at the time that I appointed him to conduct the investigation into the city’s actions in this matter, as per my terms of reference.”
Zille said Budlender had brought this to her attention and while she was advised that in law nothing prevented him from continuing to conduct this investigation, it was then agreed that he would not take on the investigation to avoid any perception of bias by the city or himself.
”I am in the process of appointing an alternative, and I will announce his or her name in due course,” Zille said.
The investigation is intended to, among other things, probe whether in hiring George Fivaz and Associates the council was footing a bill that should have been paid by the Democratic Alliance (DA), of which Zille is leader.
The DA initially approached Fivaz for a quote to probe Chaaban, but says it decided not to go ahead when it realised the city was launching its own investigation. — Sapa