In the first speech he gave as Cape Town mayor in November 2021, Geordin Hill-Lewis made a handful of promises. We rate his progress one year on.
Promise date: 18 November 2021
Due date: 22 November 2021
Source: Acceptance speech
Promise outcome: Kept in part
Lifestyle audits for politicians are regularly talked about but less often implemented.
The City of Cape Town’s mayor has bucked the trend.
In November 2021, Hill-Lewis promised that “… every member appointed to my mayoral committee next week will undergo a lifestyle audit on assuming office”.
These audits typically identify potential conflicts of interest and aim to determine whether someone’s living standard matches their known income.
Read: Early promises: How did Cape Town’s Geordin Hill-Lewis fare?
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On 11 May this year, the city confirmed that eleven “proactive forensic lifestyle audit[s]”, conducted by Fairbridges Wertheim Becker and FTI Consulting, had been completed.
Their scope included a review of mayoral committee (mayco) members’ business interests, “unexplainable assets”, links to the city’s tender database, and gifts, donations, discounts or income received from people who do business with the metro.
The audits found no “significant” red flags, Hill-Lewis said at the time.
Four months later, in September, mayco member Zahid Badroodien stepped down amid an investigation into the alleged tampering with an electricity meter.
The terms of reference of the lifestyle audits included scrutiny of water, rates and sewerage account payments, but a media release does not mention electricity.
When asked why electricity accounts were seemingly not included, mayoral spokesperson Greg Wagner referred us back to the media statement, which does not answer the question.
The same goes for a question about the date(s) on which the service providers were contracted to do the audits. (This is relevant to the promise verdict. See below.)
Wagner did say lifestyle audits would not be repeated annually but that they would be conducted “as and when [Hill-Lewis] sees fit”.
Verdict
When assigning a verdict, we consider whether a promise is fulfilled by the deadline.
In this case, the promise said mayco members would undergo lifestyle audits on assuming office.
Mayco members were announced on 22 November 2021 but the results of the lifestyle audits were only announced close to six months later.
This, while Hill-Lewis reportedly said he expected the audits to be wrapped up “by the time we close for the end of the year [2021]”.
Because the mayor’s office failed to confirm when the audits were commissioned, we cannot tell if the work started when mayco members assumed office – and therefore, if the deadline was met.
We rate this promise as kept in part.
– Track My Mayor
Track My Mayor is a promise tracker aimed at increasing accountability at local government level. It was established with support from Code for Africa’s