The Western Cape High Court has interdicted an ANC-led coalition in Knysna from continuing to pay salaries to eight unlawfully employed cadres. The court ruled that the municipality – currently in the hands of the ANC/EFF/Plaaslike Besorgde Inwoners (PBI) coalition – illegally altered the organigram of the entity in order to make the political appointments, without following due process. The DA calls the leadership of Knysna the ācoalition of corruptionā and has won their first victory in a two-part court process. BizNews correspondent Michael Appel spoke with DA constituency head in Knysna, Dr Dion George, to get background on the case and the precarious state of coalition politics in the 21-seat council he believes is a āmicrocosm of South Africaā. – Michael Appel
Excerpts from interview with DA constituency head in Knysna, Dr Dion George
Dr Dion George on the background to the Western Cape High Court judgment
What happened was when the – what we call the Coalition of Corruption in Knysna, which is the ANC/PA/PBF/EFF coalition – unseated the DA’s coalition in Knysna [in late August 2022], the first thing that they did was to change the organigram of the municipality illegally. So it was taken before council. The DA did not support it, but they agreed to change the organigram without looking at the budget, without looking at any requirements or needs as is required by legislation. And then they added eight new positions to that organigram. And what they did was they employed eight people into that organigram in the council without following any due process. So it was the brother of the leader of one of the parties, it was the wife of the legal adviser of one of the parties and and it was the former mayor and various other cadres. So it was all irregular and illegal. We applied to the Western Cape High Court for an urgent application which we got, and then we went to court last week and what we were asking the court to do as part A was to interdict the payment of the salaries of those eight deployed cases, and the court ruled in our favour. The court didn’t only rule in our favour, it also said that the behaviour of the council was egregious and that it had attempted a fraud on the court because the council had made false statements regarding the actual employment. So that was part A. Then part B will be on the merits of the case in terms of the fact that they unconstitutionally and illegally increased the organigram [and that application will be heard in 2023 barring an application for leave to appeal the judgment].
On the prevailing political landscape of Knysna
Knysna is quite a complicated environment. It’s in flux. Knysna is close to the Eastern Cape. There’s been a lot of movement of people into Knysna over time. So it’s very much changed in terms of the the demographic, and it’s changed very much in terms of the political situation. The DA was the majority for a number of years in Knysna, and then it lost that majority [in late August 2022]. And so there was a coalition government in the previous local government elections. We had one coalition partner. There were lots of complicated situations that arose in Knysna and there was some internal complications for the DA where DA councillors removed a DA mayor. It was not a very pleasant situation. We sorted that out and then we had an election. Obviously the last local government election and in the DA won eight seats. So we were not the majority, but we were the biggest party. And then we formed a coalition with the Knysna Independent Movement (KIM) which has two seats. And then we wanted one other partner because we needed 11 for a majority, because there are 21 seats in the council. So we then had the Patriotic Alliance signed up with the coalition. That’s Gayton McKenzie’s party. So it was the DA with eight seats, KIM two seats, and the Patriotic Alliance one seat. So we had the majority for a short while. Then the coalition fell over because the Patriotic Alliance made demands that we just could not agree to, amongst others, was that they wanted us to remove the DA’s mayor and put in a Patriotic Alliance mayor which we can’t do. So we said no. And then they [the PA] left the coalition. And then obviously it fell because the EFF that had previously abstained when we had voted and that’s how the DA became the mayor. The EFF then ended up voting with the ANC, the Patriotic Alliance, the PBI, and then the ANC. So it’s a very fractured political environment.
On holding councillors accountable through personal cost orders
I mean, the thing is, it’s not like we didn’t warn them. What happened was before the council meeting, in committee, we discussed paying the salaries to the deployed cadres, they were warned to remember that if you make this decision you are going to be held personally responsible. But unfortunately when these political games get played, they forget what the consequences might be. So there will be consequences. And we will not let this go because, as you say, this happens everywhere. Now, if you can be so blatant in a place like Knysna, which is a relatively small place and it’s not so easy to hide. But, imagine what happens in bigger towns across the whole country? You have to take a stand somewhere and we we’ve taken it.
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