By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
Knysna Democratic Alliance (DA) councillor Sharon Sabbagh came under fire for referring to a council meeting as a “monkey circus”.
Sabbagh made the derogatory remarks last week during a special finance and governance committee sitting.
In a video, widely shared on TikTok, Sabbagh lashed out at opposition parties after a ruckus broke out among councillors after trying to raise a point of order.
However, after being interjected several times, Sabbagh snapped.
“You wanna teach [Matika] how to manage a meeting… Continue… We are going to have the yappa yappa monkey circus going on here.”
Sabbagh was then asked who she was calling a monkey.
“I did not call anybody a monkey; if they feel offended, then it’s because they are one,” she said.
Sabbagh was then asked to withdraw her remark.
“What must I withdraw? I didn’t… oh my God. For the sake of proceeding, I apologise and stop this yappa yapping. It’s ridiculous,” she said.
The Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) in the Western Cape has called for the immediate removal of Sabbagh.
The party said Sabbagh’s “racist behaviour” was unacceptable and should never be left unchallenged.
“The racist behaviour of referring and calling black people monkeys is not an isolated case, but both a structural and endemic phenomenon whose roots could be traced back to colonialism and later apartheid where black people were depicted in a negative light and their blackness portrayed as an aberration.”