Tshwane metro: MMC Bruce Lee a South African
The metro has responded to social comments questioning the nationality of new metro’s economic development and city planning MMC, Bruce Lee. Meanwhile, Lee said he was not surprised by the racial backlash as racism was part of the country’s deep-rooted problems which government needed to address by promoting non-racialism.
Tshwane metro mayor has bashed “openly xenophobic and racist comments’’ on social media directed at the new economic development and planning MMC Bruce Lee.
Since the announcement of the new mayoral committee on Thursday, set to provide oversight on the metro’s key departments and ensure service delivery reaches the communities, Lee was trending on social media with many questioning his nationality.
On Monday, Tshwane mayor Randall Williams defended Lee saying he was a South African of Taiwanese descent.
“I have been deeply disturbed by some of the openly xenophobic and racist comments that have been directed against him. Lee, while sharing the name with the famous Chinese martial artist, is in fact not Chinese, he is South African of Taiwanese descent,’’ Williams said.
According to the metro, Lee was first elected to the council in 2011 and served on the committee for economic development and spatial planning for several years.
“Bruce has managed and runs several businesses in the manufacturing and export sector in the region,’’ Williams said.
“This has allowed him to drive philanthropic initiatives and charity drives as well. It is for the reason that I have put him in charge of addressing the issues relating to the opening of Mandisa Shiceka clinic in Hammanskraal.’’
Williams believed that Lee – who holds a MBA and a degree in political science – would unlock challenges in the metro, including the opening of the clinic that was completed last year but has not yet been opened.
A picture of the Tshwane metro post on twitter was retweeted more than a 1 000 times accompanied by several comments questioning his nationality, while this was not the case for all of the other MMCs.
MMC for Economic Development and Spatial Planning is Cllr Bruce Lee. #TshwaneLeadership pic.twitter.com/52wRVNXDqj
— City of Tshwane (@CityTshwane) November 5, 2020
Lee said he was not surprised by the racial backlash as racism was part of the country’s deep-rooted problems which government needed to address by promoting non-racialism.
“Our national government does not really promote non-racialism, this you will see when you are filling papers at home affairs. It requests if you are black, white or Asian. For me all of that does not matter – it should ask whether you are a South African or not.’’
Lee, however, said the backlash would not discourage him from performing in his new job.
“When it comes to spatial planning the metro is using an outdated system from years ago, and to deal with applications it needs to be improved. The system should move to a digital one and improved, this as bulk of the metro’s income comes from this. I have just a few months in office but I will try the best I can to address these,’’ he said.
“The metro also has a lot of abandoned buildings that are not serviced and we will also be looking at this to see how they can be used to generate income for the metro.’’
The new R124-million Mandisa Shiceka clinic in Hammanskraal has remained inoperative with no electricity or running water.
Lee said he was looking into when the clinic could be transferred from the management of the provincial government to the metro.
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