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Council meetings in Cape Town follow the Rules of Order adopted by Council on 5 December 2019. A point of order means any deviation from, or anything contrary to, these Rules. The member raising it must state the particular Rule, By-law or other law allegedly breached. A member may not address the Speaker for longer than 2 minutes on a point of order. The Speaker's role is set out on the City's website: the Speaker presides at Council meetings as chairperson and also enforces the Code of Conduct for all councillors. The Rules and Ethics Committee, on which the Speaker sits, handles the rules themselves. Its terms of reference draw on Section 160(6) of the Constitution, which lets a municipal council make by-laws prescribing rules and orders for its internal arrangements and its business and proceedings.
Chamber conduct has been a flashpoint in Cape Town for some time. In July 2025, EFF caucus leader Mzubanzi Dambuza said he lodged an assault complaint with police after being attacked and choked by security personnel inside the Council Chambers. That incident followed Dambuza refusing to leave the chamber when Speaker Felicity Purchase asked him to, after he raised concerns about being heckled by DA councillors. The GOOD party and the ANC criticised the Speaker. GOOD alleged DA members were allowed to heckle without repercussions while the EFF councillor was punished. Purchase said Dambuza had been repeatedly reprimanded for disruptive behaviour. Earlier, in January 2025, councillors were told the first meeting of the year would be held virtually because of potential disruptions.
This matters because the Speaker's impartiality and the use of security or peace officers affect how freely opposition parties can take part. Both are central to the credibility of Council as the body that makes the City's by-laws and top-level decisions. The National Coloured Congress is a smaller party, with seven of the 231 seats on Cape Town's council.
