The Democratic Alliance’s (DA’s) mayoral committee member for safety and security JP Smith came under fire after he tried to crack a joke about the surname of Cape Talk radio host Abongile Nzelenzele.
After Nzelenzele called Smith to the podium, the DA member said, “To our MC Abongile, I’m not even going to try that surname dude. There’s too many vowels, too awkwardly placed.”
“You need a short, compact one like me, Smith.”
Smith told TimesLive that his “joke” was misunderstood and taken out of context.
Adding that there was no ill intent behind the joke.
“There is context to it. I just spoke to him now and he took no offence. [People] are being shown a portion of the proceedings, so it is easy to [take it] out of context, but we are speaking about a person and that person himself did not see any offence in the remarks.”
[WATCH] Here’s the short clip of the DA’s JP Smith’s unfunny remark to Abongile…. just watch.
Then wait for 1652 Twitter telling you “It’s just a joke FFS!” pic.twitter.com/fIemt6Mycx
— Eusebius McKaiser (@Eusebius) September 8, 2021
Good day,
The City’s Mayoral Committee Member for Safety and Security, Alderman JP Smith has called and spoken with Mr. Nzelenzele. He confirms that he took no offence at the remark, nor did Mr. Nzelenzele think there was any ill intent.
Thank you. https://t.co/P6nYZZLKLe
— City of Cape Town (@CityofCT) September 8, 2021