Open letter from Patricia de Lille, to Councillor Tony Ehrenreich, March 4 2014:

Dear Mr Ehrenreich,

Your recent correspondence refers.

At the outset let me state that the concerns you have raised have illustrated yet again the problem you have of wearing two hats: neither of them fit.

You continue to demonstrate in word and deed that you are incompetent as the Leader of the Opposition in Council and you are incompetent as COSATU Provincial Secretary.

You incessantly illustrate that you have no understanding of how local government actually works in practice nor of the relevant legislation that governs the functions of local government.

To compound matters, you regularly absent yourself from Council meetings. Just last week you chose to attend a COSATU meeting in Johannesburg, rather than attend Council when it was considering the very matters that you have subsequently complained about.

In your absence, the ANC brought its ungovernanbility campaign into the Council when members of your caucus violently threw the draft budget on the floor of the Council, sang songs and danced throughout the Chamber holding fake guns.

The draft budget which was tabled for public comment provides all the necessary detail to show that this government delivers to all of the residents of Cape Town, with a very clear pro-poor bias - with 67% of the proposed budget allocation directly aimed at service provision to the poor. Your inability to read complex documents no doubt means that this fact has passed you by.

Your claim to speak on behalf of the working class also does not stand up to scrutiny and is simply a gimmick on your behalf. You certainly do not have an electoral mandate from the working class, the majority of whom did not vote for you in the last election. Your continued claims therefore to speak for the working class therefore remains only a figment of your vivid imagination.

I therefore challenge you to provide any concrete proof of wrong doing in terms of the law (that is if you understand the law) committed by this Council and if you do, to refer this alleged wrongdoing to the relevant authorities. I would suggest that you to stick to the law and the facts on such matters, and not allow your imagination to run away from you, as it so often does.

In order to assist you in this process, I hope that Councillor Sotashe has given you the gift packet that I gave him on your behalf at the last Council meeting. The copy of the Constitution, MyCiTi card and map of the city, I hope will serve to educate you better on the functions of local government and the geography of this City - matters about which you remain seriously confused.

Finally, it seems to me that two and half years into the term of this Council that you have slept like Rip van Winkle and only now woken up to the fact that the City has changed its corporate identity and pay-off line. Given this serious failure to execute your duties in this Council, my only advice to the ANC is that you should be replaced with immediate effect.

Issued by the City of Cape Town, March 4 2014

Click here to sign up to receive our free daily headline email newsletter