GEORGE NEWS - George Good Councillor Chantelle Kyd resigned as member of the mayoral committee (MMC) for Planning and Development yesterday, 29 May.
Her motivation is an alleged decision of the DA caucus in the coalition that she would not be allowed to speak at a confidential council meeting today on a technical and legal report being tabled, pertaining to the Neo Victoria building collapse.
Her sudden exit from the committee was announced in a Good media statement last night.
Last week, George Municipality confirmed that the reports, which it had commissioned following the collapse, had been received. The technical report was handed over to the SAPS and forms part of the criminal investigation into the disaster. The legal report is a legal opinion regarding the municipality’s liability in the collapse.
Kyd has been pressing for investigation reports into the incident - also the Western Cape Government’s technical report - to be made public.
Good’s Secretary General Brett Herron says in last night’s statement that the councillor has been “the leading advocate in Council for transparency around investigations into the collapsed George building.
"But when the Council meets to table the first of two (technical and legal) investigations into the disaster tomorrow [Friday] - confidentially, without media present - the DA caucus in the coalition has decided that it is too risky to allow Kyd to speak. The only members of the coalition allowed to speak are the mayor and deputy mayor, both representing the DA.
“When I attempted to address the matter with the DA provincial leadership yesterday [Wednesday], they said Cllr Kyd had agreed not to speak, which is not the truth,” said Herron.
“It is fundamentally disrespectful, contemptuous even, to prevent the MMC for Planning from speaking about a planning issue in which she has been centrally involved.”
He said Kyd would continue working from outside the mayoral committee to serve the community.
In response to a request for comment, DA Mayor Jackie von Brandis only confirmed Kyd’s resignation from the committee.
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