GEORGE NEWS - The Good party has lodged a complaint against George Mayor Leon Van Wyk following a municipal statement last week which made public a council resolution on a confidential item.
The statement was released on Wednesday afternoon, 2 December, shortly after Council deliberated requests from Municipal Manager Trevor Botha and Director of Community Services Walter Hendricks, that their contracts with George Municipality be terminated.
In addition, Good's representative in Council, Richard Hector, is disgruntled with Speaker Gerrit Pretorius, whom he says has refused Good's request to make the matter publicly available in the first place.
Hector says the party once again calls upon Pretorius to move the confidential decision to the open agenda "so that the people of George can scrutinise the full story".
"Refusing to do so, while allowing the Executive Mayor to speak to the public on the item, is an abuse of power for DA purposes and means the people of George are only being told what the DA wants you to know," says Hector.
Only resolutions made public
Municipal spokesperson Chantel Edwards-Klose says Pretorius has responded to Hector in writing, noting that the mayor acted within the delegation afforded to him.
"The mayor issued a press release without detailing the item/and or council discussion thereon and only providing the resolved decisions taken," says Edwards-Klose.
Regarding the complaint about the speaker, Edwards-Klose says the speaker is not permitted, without receipt of suitable motivation, to unilaterally declassify agenda documents or move the same between the confidential agenda and the open agenda after the matter was considered and resolved by Council as confidential.
"No such suitable motivation was received prior to tabling of the confidential item," says Edwards-Klose.
Gerrit Pretorius
On a request for comment on the item itself, Hector says the Good party is of the opinion that the community should be completely informed of the confidential items.
"On two occasions Good requested the speaker to move the items from confidential to open items, to avail the truth to the community of George. However, [the items] remain confidential and therefore Good will not be able to respond at this time."
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