Drama at GRDM over chairs

GEORGE NEWS - The removal of two opposition councillors as chairs of two article 80 committees of the Garden Route District Municipality's Council was the cause of heavy debate during a council meeting on Tuesday 25 October.

The MPAC (Municipal Public Accounts Committee) chairperson Clodia Lichaba of the ANC was replaced by Cllr Danie Acker (Freedom Front Plus) and the Occupational Health and Safety Committee chairperson Virgill Gericke (PBI) was replaced by Koos Malooi (DA).

The ANC, PBI and Good parties accuse Mayor Memory Booysen of acting unilaterally and ignoring the principle of transparency, saying the DA and its coalition partners can not do oversight over themselves without the input of the opposition.

The three parties released a statement on the matter on Tuesday evening.

In their statement, the opposition say they perceive these changes as "... retaliation by the DA coalition to punish the opposition for exposing alleged corrupt activities in the municipality.

"Various allegations have recently surfaced in media circles and on social media pertaining to corrupt activities in the Garden Route District Municipality. The allegations have also served before the Municipal Public Accounts Committee of which Lechaba was the chairperson."

In his response, Booysen said the purpose of the item that served at the council meeting was for the restructuring of all Section 79 committees, not only the MPAC and Occupational Health and Safety Committee.

"The decision to restructure these committees was made by Council," said Booysen. "The allegations that I unilaterally decided to restructure the committees are fabricated with the intent to damage the reputation of the GRDM. This narrative is politically motivated and lacks substance. It is strongly denied that these allegations are true.

"The contradiction in their statement also shows that this is not true as they say that I proposed to Council and the same statement says the I unilaterally changed the committee."

Booysen said there were various reasons for the restructuring of these committees, including the filling of vacant positions left by councillors, or operational inefficiencies.

"Council is aware of the allegations that surfaced in the media pertaining to alleged corrupt activities at GRDM," said Booysen. "Over the past few months there were two allegations that were levelled against the GRDM."

Virgill Gericke (PBI)

The first allegation

Booysen said the first allegation was of financial misconduct against municipal manager Monde Stratu, from a movement known as the Garden Route Corruption Busters. "These allegations were dealt with in terms of the Municipal Financial Misconduct Regulations," said Booysen.

"They were presented to the GRDM Council and were unanimously (all parties agreed) dismissed as malicious and without substance. The outcome of the GRDM Council was also communicated to all the relevant structures, including the MEC for Local Government (Western Cape). The MM was exonerated on all the allegations based on the evidence presented to Council. The GRDM Council considers this matter as closed."

The second allegation

"The second allegation was received from the MEC for Local Government Anton Bredell," said Booysen. "These allegations relate to issues around the recruitment of employees. The GRDM responded to the MEC with all the supporting information, which dispelled the allegations. These were also reported to the GRDM Council.

"None of the allegations mentioned above served at the MPAC as alluded to in the statement by the ANC, PBI and Good. It will therefore be malicious for these political parties to claim that they have been targeted because they have dealt with the allegations. It is worth noting that the same councillors that serve on the MPAC, were part and parcel of the council meetings where it was unanimously agreed to dismiss the allegations.

MPAC chair's removal

"This brings me to the reasons why Council decided to remove the chairperson of MPAC [Lichaba]," said Booysen.

"The MPAC chairperson repeatedly acted against the resolutions of the GRDM Council, by using the MPAC platform to drive her political vendetta against the GRDM Council’s decisions. This raised serious concerns, as she forms part of the GRDM Council where decisions are taken.

"This has brought reputational damage to the institution. It is also concerning that the previous chairperson claims to have been dealing with the allegations at MPAC whilst she is well aware that these were never referred to MPAC for deliberations.

"The chairperson of the Occupational Health and Safety Committee [Gericke] was removed because of the allegations levelled against him, which were subsequently reported to the South African Police Service by the GRDM."

Booysen said he wants to reassure the Garden Route community that the multi-party coalition is committed to clean, transparent and accountable governance.

"As stated above, this coalition is not aware of any allegations of fraud and corruption levelled by the ANC, PBI and Good, against the GRDM councillors or officials. These parties are well aware and obliged to use any legal avenue to report allegations."

Bredell's feedback

Following the Garden Route Corruption Busters' allegation of financial misconduct against municipal manager Stratu*, Bredell asked for more information on the matter by launching an assessment (in terms of Section 5 of the Western Cape Monitoring and Support of Municipalities Act) earlier this year.

Booysen said in his statement on Wednesday 26 October the GRDM Council considers the matter closed.

Asked for fresh feedback on this issue, Bredell responded as follows: "I have addressed correspondence to the municipality in compliance with the Western Cape Monitoring and Support of Municipalities Act and required the municipality to provide all relevant documentation in relation to the allegations of past salaries exceeding the legislated maximum amount permitted. The municipality only provided the required documents on 9 September 2022.

"Officials from my Department of Local Government will now review the documentation and make a recommendation to me on whether to initiate an investigation in terms of section 106 of the Municipal Systems Act.

"The Municipal Council had furthermore consulted with me on supporting a waiver application to the national minister to waive the prescribed requirements in terms of the upper limits relating to Mr Stratu, which support was provided based on the motivation provided by Council. The municipality must now submit the application to the national minister, Dr Dlamini-Zuma for approval."

Mayor Memory Booysen (DA)

The Garden Route Corruption Busters claimed that Stratu, during his five-year term as MM, earned approximately R4,8 million in excess of the maximum permitted salary package for an MM of a category five municipality, and they believe him to be guilty of financial misconduct as well as a financial offence.

25 October 2022

Media statement: ANC, GOOD, PBI

Opposition parties have taken a strong stance in the Garden Route District Municipal Council on Tuesday when the mayor made changes to the chairpersons of section 79 committees.

These committees were occupied by councillors of the PBI and ANC. The MPAC chair, Clodia Lechaba has been replaced by a member of the Freedom Front and the Occupational Health and Safety Chairperson, Ald. Virgill Gericke has been replaced by a DA councillor.

The mayor, Memory Booysen proposed the changes. The opposition submitted counter proposals for the opposition to retain their positions.

The opposition accused the mayor of acting unilaterally and ignoring the principle of transparency since the ruling party and its coalition partners cannot do oversight over themselves.

The fact that the mayor proposed the changes, was a serious point of debate. The work of councillors is to do oversight over the executive. Therefore it goes beyond our understanding that a government can do oversight over itself without the input of the opposition.

Further to this, these changes are perceived by the opposition as retaliation by the DA coalition to punish the opposition for exposing alleged corrupt activities in the municipality.

Various allegations have recently surfaced in media circles and on social media pertaining to corrupt activities in the Garden Route District Municipality. The allegations have also served before the Municipal Public Accounts Committee of which Lechaba was the chairperson.

Opposition councillors repeatedly, one after another, alluded to the fact that the mayor is doing an injustice to council by making the proposed changes himself. Further down in the council meeting a heated debate ensued when members of the financial misconduct disciplinary board were to be appointed.

The principle of independence was strongly debated by the opposition. It was raised that members serving on this board should be independent and not compromised in any way.

The role of the opposition, and all councillors for that matter, is to safeguard the interest of the public, do oversight and protect the financial integrity of the municipality.

The entire opposition has vowed to commit to clean, transparent and accountable governance. It has been submitted in council that fraud and corruption charges will be pressed against implicated individuals for thorough investigation.

MM Monde Stratu