The "Councillor of the Year" award is an internal recognition by the City of Cape Town Council of an individual councillor's service. It is not a statutory honour. The City's formal public honours are separate. These are the Civic Honours and Mayor's Medals, which recognise public service to Cape Town that is exceptionally meritorious or impactful, in any field of social, community or civic interest. I found no published City criteria or selection process for the Councillor of the Year award, so I can't say how recipients are chosen.
Alderman Clive Justus is a long-serving City of Cape Town councillor. Cape Town is a metropolitan municipality with a mayoral executive system. A mayoral committee (MayCo) supports the mayor, and councillors chair portfolio committees that oversee areas such as finance and safety. The current mayor is Geordin Hill-Lewis of the Democratic Alliance, who has held the position since 2021. The Council is DA-led, and opposition parties such as the EFF regularly question how it makes decisions.
On recent developments, the Civic Honours were revived under Mayor Hill-Lewis. The awards mark the continuation of a tradition revived by Hill-Lewis in 2023 following a decade-long hiatus. Going forward the ceremony will be a regular fixture every two years with fewer recipients. Council recognition of this kind matters because it shows what the institution values in its public representatives. Questions about transparency in how awards are decided are a common way for opposition parties to raise accountability issues.
