Is it possible that the Western Cape media decided to break their silence on the sins of the DA?

Filed under In the Media by on 14/02/2013 at 11:03 AM {14 comments}

Start here Is it possible that the Western Cape media decided to break their silence on the sins of the DA?

 

JEF noticed a string of articles lately depicting the DA in a negative light.

It feels a bit awkward to read these articles in the mainstream newspapers and not on websites like JEF, O!O and The Knysna Keep. An awkward but yet very moving feeling though.

Could it be that the media houses realized that the Emperor is naked after all, like all the rest of them in government?

Will it lead to some kind of enlightenment amongst the voters? Could the Independent Movement stand a chance during the next elections?

Please note this very interesting article which appeared on the front page of the Cape Times and The Herald today. JEF just loves Wessie’s response to the allegations. It’s priceless!  Read more here.

Bitou Mayor Memory Booysen Sued for Defamation

Filed under In the Media, Legal Updates by on 04/06/2012 at 5:50 PM {12 comments}

Bitou Executive Mayor Memory Booysen and the DA’s Bitou Constituency chairperson, Liz Mundell face charges of Criminal Defamation.

Hardy Mills2 300x268 Bitou Mayor Memory Booysen Sued for DefamationSAPS media liaison Marlene Pieterse confirmed that this case was opened on May 2. “The complainant is a 38-year-old, who was apparently falsely accused that he was responsible for unrest in Plettenberg Bay,” she explained.

The charges were laid following various media statements in which it was suggested that a political conspiracy was afoot culminating in a statement by the Bitou DA on February 27 accusing local attorney Hardy Mills of instigating the violence associated with service delivery protests that had been plaguing Plett at the time.

“I believe that they unlawfully and intentionally published false matters concerning myself which injured my reputation,” said Mills.

“The defamatory statements made against me are of an extremely serious nature and are prima face unlawful. It caused irreparable injury to my reputation, personally as well as professionally,” he said.

In addition to the damage to his reputation, Mills has allegedly been exposed to hatred and ridicule by those who believe the media statements to be true. He has also been the recipient of death threats.

“The investigation is still continuing,” said Pieterse.

[This report appeared in the Knysna-Plett Herald]

Helen Zille on Bitou and JEF’s response.

Filed under In the Media, Press Releases by on 25/02/2012 at 11:28 AM {15 comments}

JEF responds to the Statement released by the Premier and DA leader Helen Zille, dated 22 February 2012.

This statement is sadly by far the most disappointing and disheartening one yet in recent times.

DA: Statement by Helen Zille, Democratic Alliance leader, on the municiplaity of Bitou (22/02/2012)

Published 22 Feb 2012 on Polity.org

I will be requesting a meeting with the Western Cape Police Commissioner, Arno Lamoer, to discuss the problem of politically-motivated violence perpetrated against the DA-governed Bitou municipality after the alleged arson at the council’s head offices in Plettenberg Bay in the early hours of Sunday morning.

Why didn’t Zille request such a meeting when much worse happened during the period when the ANC governed the municipality? Countless houses were burnt down, public and private property was destroyed, many people were seriously injured, and tragically a one year old baby lost its life in the “cross-fire”.

This follows the call last year by the ANC’s Southern Cape Regional Secretary, Putco Mapitisa, for all DA-led councils to be made ungovernable.

JEF googled this alleged “call” by Mr. Mapitisa but could not find it. Will Zille please provide proof of this?

The effects of this call were acute in the first few months of the new DA-led Bitou council’s term, with the municipality being forced to get a court interdict to stop the ANC from disrupting council meetings.

As a journalist by profession Zille should know that feeding the public with misleading and false information is a serious offence. She is fully aware of the fact that this interdict was dismissed with costs and that four declaratory orders were granted against the (then) speaker in favour of the ANC councilors and the Municipal Law Enforcement Unit. The Cape High Court found that he (the speaker) was in fact the cause of all the disruptions due to his partisan, unlawful and UNCONSTITUTIONAL conduct. The court further ruled that the speaker fundamentally misunderstood his role as speaker. Moreover, the speaker had to withdraw his ill conceived and frivolous application against the South African Police Force, wherein he falsely accused them of not fulfilling their duties in assisting the speaker in executing his (the speaker’s) commands.

Sunday’s fire was started in the wing where both the mayor and municipal manager’s offices are based. A window was broken and flammable liquid was poured into a ground floor office.

This part of the building was probably targeted due to the highly-flammable dry-wall petitions used in the offices. Extensive damage has been caused to the building, including smoke damage stretching some 50 metres down the corridors.

This is just the latest incident in the continuing trend of political violence in Bitou:

Criminal charges have been laid against local ANC leaders in Qolweni for demolishing shacks belonging to supporters of other parties and forcibly removing people from the area

This is a blatant lie. JEF was present when the defence attorney asked the accused to which political party they belong and their answers were 2 DA, 2 COPE and 1 ANC. JEF was present when the SABC asked the crowd outside the court to which political party they belong and the answers varied from all political parties, even the IFP! Afterwards some of them presented their DA membership cards and said that they want to return the R50 they allegedly received when they joined the DA.

Executive Mayor Memory Booysen has received numerous anonymous phone-calls by people referring to him as a “dog” and threatening to kill him. Mr Booysen currently is forced to wear a bulletproof-vest.

JEF is convinced that this is a complete fabrication. Accusations against the DA, describing in detail exactly how they manipulate the system has yet to be countered or denied by the DA. The statement above seems to be the standard default reply every time they are confronted with hard facts, to which they have no answer. It’s their trusted evading response and plea for sympathy in an attempt to shift the spot light from them. According to a member of the public the manipulation strategy works as follow: The municipality informs National Intelligence (NI) that new threats to the mayor’s life were received. They are fully aware that the standard practice in such a scenario is that NI instructs the local police that there are new threats to the mayor’s life and that they must carefully monitor the situation. The municipality then “inquires” from the local police the status of the safety situation, knowing full well that they will be informed that the latest “intelligence” received from NI is that the situation is extremely dangerous and that there is a real threat to the mayors life. This is then communicated to the public and the media, with the explanation that the R240 000-00 per month bill for body guards is completely justified and “out of their hands”. The following questions still remain unanswered:

1. Why the mayor’s Security Company was appointed without following the required competitive bidding system at the time he was appointed as mayor?

2. Why did the then speaker, Johann Brummer, appoint them when this is expressly prohibited in terms of the law?

3. Why hasn’t the municipality since then (in 8 months), advertised the tender in order to rectify their deviation as required by law?

4. Why did the mayor attempt to appoint the same security company, again without following due process, in order to protect the entire industrial area when the protest got out of hand, and on the tax payers tab?

Local business leaders have gone on record during a meeting with the council to say that the ANC ward councillor in Qolweni is actively involved in orchestrating the violence

Recently, security has been stepped up at the home of Deputy Mayor, Adam Van Ryhner, after death threats were received

Here are the facts:

1. At the meeting one business owner said that he witnessed a black woman carrying two tires to the N2, in broad day light, in full view of everyone, and that this woman arrogantly taunted them (in Afrikaans), by saying that they will now see what will happen to them. He then “identified” the women (to the best of his knowledge) as an ANC councilor and even stated her name (to the best of his capability). When the “more informed” people at the meeting heard this ludicrous accusation, they all chuckled and the meeting immediately moved on to the next topic, without wasting one second on this amusing, yet ridiculous statement.

2. However, reporter Janine Oelofse decided to report this “breaking news” to the public.

3. In order to give it a bit more credibility however, the following report appeared in the media “One businessman, who did not want to be named for fear of reprisal, said his workers had identified an ANC councillor carrying tyres to a barricade in the industrial area during last week’s violence”

4. How this “journalist” can still maintain that she is unbiased, and even more puzzling, how any respectable newspaper can still accept and publish her articles, remains a complete mystery.

5. Death threats against whom again? Please….

It is clear from recent events that the ANC is actively involved in attempting to make the council ungovernable. This campaign aims to use violence and fear to undermine the work of the elected DA-led council. The DA will not be deterred by attempts to stop us from delivering opportunities and better services for all the people where we govern.

I look forward to taking this matter up with Commissioner Lamoer before it spirals out of control and lives are lost

It is clear that Zille and the DA refuse to accept the naked truth which is staring them in the face, and would rather dismiss it as a political conspiracy, in order to avoid addressing these annoying, but unfortunately for them, real and crucial issues. Why can’t Zille realize that for as long as she dismisses these issues as trivial, they will never disappear?

There’s an old saying in Afrikaans: “‘n benoude kat maak benoude spronge…”

Bitou: Brummer’s denials fool no-one

Filed under In the Media, Press Releases by on 09/02/2012 at 3:34 PM {3 comments}

Kenny Leluma asks why Premier Zille hasn’t acted over illegal Didata tender in Bitou

The DA’s Brummer is quoted in Sunday Times of February 5, 2012 as having said that his reference to Jeremy Ord of Didata in his email to senior DA officials as a ‘supporter’ was because the company did a “free assessment” of the municipality’s IT system, and that “politics has nothing to do with [illegal awarding of a contract]“.

He is also reported to have claimed that no tender was put out because the work was “an emergency”. He ended his response by saying that the municipality is “paying [Didata] something like R4, 2million but every cent is accounted for down to the last safety pin.”

The problem with Brummer, and the DA by extension, is that they think that they are intelligent while everybody else is stupid.

Brummer must explain what he meant by “free assessment” because there was none such a thing. Didata was asked by the DA to “look” into the system and give a quotation. This is confirmed by Thys Giliomee’s Memorandum to Booysen wherein he states that after doing an assessment, Didata submitted the total cost implications of R11.9m.

The municipality tried to get funding from the province. After being unable to get provincial assistance, “further negotiations were held with Dimension Data (7 Dec 2011). Didata was then asked to revise their specifications, and “the quotation was received early on 9 December 2012 (sic)”

From these it is clear that Didata did nothing for free. They “assessed” the system in order to write a quotation. And they ended up getting an illegal contract.

According to Giliomee’s Memo, Lefatshe was told in September 2011 that their contract was going to be terminated on 31 December 2011. We also know that Booysen wrote a letter to the public in September indicating two things.

First that the contract of Lefatshe was going to be terminated; and second that a DA MPL, Donald Grant met with Jeremy Ord of Didata and the two agreed that Didata would be involved in the IT system of Bitou. We also know that by October 4, 2011, Didata was given access to the municipality’s offices to make this “assessment”.

The request for deviation was made on December 12, 2011. That is more than three months after a decision was taken to terminate the Lefatshe contract. So, Brummer is lying when he says they didn’t put the work out on Tender because it was an “emergency“.

In the absence of a comparison with other companies, what is the basis of claiming that the municipality is getting a fair deal? Didata wrote own specification. This is confirmed in Giliomee’s memo.

Given the above irrefutable facts, it is obvious that Didata wrote specifications for the contract later awarded to them. The DA awarded an illegal contract to Didata. There were no reasons other than corruption not to put the work out for tender.

I have reasonable assumptions why the DA didn’t want to put it on tender. I’m however puzzled why a company as big as Didata can get itself involved is such a corrupt activity, or is this indication of how they had been making their money.

But there are two other issues related to this contract that have not been raised in the Sunday Times article, and maybe it’s because the journalists were not aware of them. The company was paid and started working without a contract between Didata and the municipality being signed. If it was subsequently signed, that was a result of them being aware of the media attention on the matter.

Lastly, Helen Zille was informed, and all documents given to her, of this corruption at least three weeks before the Sunday Times article but nothing was done about it. Maybe she has an explanation for that behaviour.

Kenny Leluma was political advisor to the ANC executive mayor of Bitou, under the municipality’s previous administration.

Article appeared on Politicsweb.

Legal fees and bodyguards milk Bitou ratepayers

Filed under In the Media by on 09/02/2012 at 3:22 PM {one comment}

BITOU Municipality is going to need more money for legal fees as court actions stack up, according to a financial report sent to mayor Memory Booysen.

The report says while council made provision for legal fees amounting to R3-million in the annual budget for the 2011/12 financial year, current spending already amounts to R2.3-million. “An additional provision for legal costs will need to be made in the adjustments budget,” the report stated.

Booysen said council was aware of “a lot of litigations which are lined up against the municipality, especially with regards to awarded tenders and town planning issues”.

According to the report, security services for Booysen and deputy mayor Adam van Rhyner had not been budgeted for in this financial year and would need to be dealt with in the upcoming mid-year adjustment budget.

“The total cost of such service for the financial year is estimated to be at R1.9-million,” the report said.

Booysen and Van Rhyner were assigned bodyguards after allegations of threats and intimidation, ostensibly from ANC supporters, shortly after the elections last year.

“The bodyguards issue is one of those which we don’t control directly; we get briefings from crime intelligence and the local police. Some councillors and senior officials are not privy to these briefings because of their sensitive nature and they can only speculate.

“As an affected party I can’t fully brief them. I am very concerned about the costs of this exercise but the difference is less by about R3-million per annum compared to my predecessor,” Booysen said, adding that the bodyguards would be phased out as the safety situation improved.

The ANC in Bitou has questioned the need for the bodyguards and in November last year asked council to investigate the costs of providing security and accommodation for Booysen and Van Rhyner.

Read the full article on CXPRESS.

Garden Route Media

Author: Janine Oelofse

Bitou Speaker to Resign?

Filed under In the Media by on 03/11/2011 at 6:23 AM {9 comments}

johann brummer Bitou Speaker to Resign?Source: Knysna-Plett Herald
Journalist: Candice Ludick

Bitou’s Speaker, Johann Brummer announced his intention to step down as speaker last week. Whilst the Plett DA expressed its support of Brummer’s resignation, the party’s Western Cape leader, Theuns Botha, requested that he does not tender his resignation yet.

Following a special council meeting on Wednesday, October 26, the ANC’s South Cape/Klein Karoo regional secretary, Putco Mapitiza, issued a press statement which said, “The DA’s speaker in Bitou, Johann Brummer has announced his intention to step down as speaker.”

In a press statement on October 30, Liz Mundell, DA Bitou constituency chairperson, said, “Councilor Brummer believes that his appointment as speaker of the Bitou Council has been vehemently opposed by ANC councilors on the council to such an extent that the council cannot be run efficiently. In the interests of ensuring that the Bitou Municipality can be run efficiently, Councilor Brummer has resigned as speaker of the Bitou Council.”

Mapitiza said that although the ANC welcomes Brummer’s resignation, it is disappointing that he did not also resign as councilor. He suggested that Brummer was “incapable of making any positive contribution as councilor”.

At the time of going to press, Brummer had not responded to requests for comment or to provide reasons for his decision.

On Tuesday, November 1, Botha said that Brummer had declared his willingness and readiness to resign as speaker, but had not yet done so.

Botha said that Brummer was elected as speaker for a specific reason. He explained that the DA elects executive members at federal level and that the ultimate decision as to Brummer’s position within the DA rests with the DA’s federal executive.

Botha said that the decision for Brummer to be speaker was not taken lightly. Therefore, to him, it seemed inappropriate for Brummer to “just resign”…

Read the rest of the article at here.

Leluma Challenges DA to Lay Charges Against ANC in Bitou

Filed under In the Media by on 27/10/2011 at 10:40 PM {3 comments}

Dear Mrs Helen Zille

Kenny Leluma Leluma Challenges DA to Lay Charges Against ANC in Bitou You see, Madam Zille, you and a large section of the media have appointed the DA custodian of the country’s political moral compass. A day doesn’t pass by without you making statement s that paint everybody and everything associated with ANC as corrupt and incompetent. And everything you say is always accepted by the gullible media, and print media in particular, as gospel truth.

But a deeper look reveals that you have been weaving a web of deceit. It is unfortunate that while the media has willingly got into bed with the DA, most ordinary people have been blind-folded into a politically orgy full of lies and double standards.

I know you’ll rush to dismiss this and even unleash the very same media to hunt me down, but I am okay with that. I am used to it. Anyway, let us see what is happening in Bitou.

To many people, anything written in newspapers is gospel truth. So, it was not surprising when in 2007 some people from Kwanokuthula protested against what was termed “ANC corruption” at the municipality. They had read this lie in the newspapers. And the newspapers had one source, the DA’s Johan Brummer.

We questioned lack of professionalism by the journalist involved and we were accused of trying to muzzle the media. As Brummer was unable to submit any proof to the police for investigation whilst he was always in the newspapers alleging ‘proof’ of corruption and making other related reckless statements, the Council instituted disciplinary action against him. He was found not fit to be a councillor by a respected senior advocate and the ANC-led Council asked your MEC for Local Government to remove him as a councillor. The request was refused and I know you needed his skills as a covert operative during apartheid days for your future use.

The lies were escalated and you personally got involved in the smear campaign against the ANC councillors in Bitou. You got your trophy when you went in a coalition with COPE to run Bitou after the recent elections. I remember COPE President, Mosiuoa Lekota, saying he preferred to work with your party because it delivers better services and is NOT corrupt.

Maybe Lekota should have asked the people of Bitou about the service delivery record of the ANC in Bitou. He would have been pleasantly surprised. As for alleged corruption, I do accept that he would have read the same newspapers as the rest of us.

The DA/COPE coalition has been in power in Bitou for five months. We are still waiting for charges of corruption against ‘ANC councillors and officials’ to be laid with the police. Your party called public meetings and promised people that soon ‘ANC people’ would be jailed for corruption. We are still waiting but you can’t expect us to wait forever. You should remember that it is a criminal offence to withhold information of corruption from the police. Go and lay charges now.

You will recall that the Auditor General gave the ANC-led Bitou unqualified audit for three successive years; and I am told that your deployee to Bitou is not happy that the fourth and final one is forthcoming. This achievement was obtained despite you consistently accusing the ANC to have institutionalised corruption in Bitou.

Simply, you implied that the Auditor General was either incompetent or colluding with the corrupt ANC. These lies were fed the people of Bitou and some believed you. Please tell the people of Bitou the difference between instruments used to assess your provincial government departments, ANC-run Bitou and any DA-run municipality. That way we will understand your insistence that there is corruption in Bitou despite the achievement of clean audit findings in the past years.

Unlike you, we have documentary proof of wrongdoing by the DA councillors since they got into power. These include questionable procurement; involvement of councillors in procurement; involvement of Thys Giliomee, a consultant sent by you to Bitou, in procurement; involvement of Gilomee in day to day running of municipality – his threats and intimidation of officials and removal of personal files from the municipal offices; involvement of Brummer’s girlfriend in administration of the municipality; intimidation of officials seen to be in opposition of the DA.

You are challenged to publicly undertake to personally ensure protection of any official from intimidation or harassment, especially from Brummer and Giliomee, for reporting or cooperating with the police or public protector or unbiased media, if one still exists, on allegations of wrongdoing by the DA in Bitou.

Lastly, the DA vowed publicly in writing that the ratepayers will not pay a cent for the high court case that was initiated by Brummer and supported by both the DA and COPE coalition against the ANC councillors. The court has ruled in favour of the ANC councillors and Brummer has for all purposes declared unfit to be The Speaker of council. I don’t expect you remove him. After all he is a useful tool in your tangled web of deceit. But, can you tell the people of Bitou how the DA/COPE coalition is going to fund about R1.2m costs awarded against you?

Kenny Leluma (former political advisor to the former ANC executive mayor of Bitou)
Source: Politics Web

Lefatshe Considers Action Against Bitou

Filed under In the Media by on 26/10/2011 at 12:04 PM {7 comments}

SOURCE: IT WEB
AUTHOR: NICOLA MAWSON

Computer hands Lefatshe Considers Action Against BitouIT outsourcing company Lefatshe Technologies is pondering taking action against the Bitou Local Municipality, after the city canned a deal with it, publicly blaming the company for not performing.

Bitou cancelled the contract with Lefatshe earlier this month, claiming the financial system was a waste of R10 million as it did not work. However, Lefatshe argues the cancellation letter it received did not mention non-performance.

In an open letter, mayor Memory Booysen said the Belgian Cipal system, which Lefatshe was implementing, was a failure and a waste of money. Booysen was looking back at the council’s first 100 days in office. Bitou, previously known as Plettenberg Bay Municipality, is located in the Western Cape.

Booysen says the municipality had forked out about R10 million by the end of June, a rate of R139 000 a month, for a system it does not use, because it does not work. “The town has paid millions for something it has never used and will never be able to use.”

The situation has “placed our municipality in great jeopardy”, says Booysen. However, Dimension Data executive chairman Jeremy Ord, who owns property in the area, has allegedly offered to step in and assist with an evaluation of the city’s technology and suggest a plan forward, at no cost. Ord was not available to confirm this.

Booysen also alleges that the South African Police Service’s elite unit, the Hawks, is investigating the company nationally. However, ITWeb has ascertained that Booysen was referring to the Special Investigating Unit, and not the Hawks, and the SIU is not investigating the company.

SIU spokesperson Marika Muller says the unit “does not have a national investigation into Lefatshe”. She adds: “I don’t know where that suggestion originated, but it is incorrect.”

However, the city is adamant that Lefatshe is under investigation, and will not provide any information about the contents of the termination letter it sent to the company. Lefatshe has a licence to sell Belgian state-owned Cipal’s municipal finance IT system in SA.

Contradictions

While Bitou publicly stated it canned the deal because the integrated management system was not working, Lefatshe has been told the city did not have enough money for the project. The IT firm is now pondering action against the city for damaging its reputation.

Lefatshe’s group communications officer, Mbuso Thabethe, says the official cancellation letter from the municipality says the contract was canned because the region did not have the budget for it in the 2011/12 year.

The letter contains “nothing about non-performance”, says Thabethe. He says the Cipal system has been implemented in Mogale and Westonaire and works well in those regions, and any allegations to the contrary have been disproved.

Thabethe says the mayor’s open letter was “quite upsetting” as the company initially heard about the cancellation from the public space. “Does the right hand not know what the left is doing?”

The letter damages Lefatshe’s reputation, and the company will discuss what to do about it and will not just “sit back”, says Thabethe. He says the company will decide what action to take in “the next week or so”.

Lefatshe is not aware of any investigation into the company by either the Hawks or the SIU, says Thabethe.

Cutting back

Bitou is struggling financially and has had to trim expenditure by R13 million. It is also looking into a R30 million loan from Standard Bank that it can tap into as needed, says Booysen. “We are walking a tightrope, but know we cannot borrow ourselves out of trouble.”

Booysen says the Lefatshe deal is “one of the most troubling facts to emerge so far out of Bitou.

“We have unfortunately not achieved all that we set out to achieve. In retrospect, our plans were perhaps a bit over ambitious and we had certainly not bargained on what needs to be fixed before we can really move forward.”

DA Out of Control in Bitou

Filed under In the Media by on 18/10/2011 at 11:30 AM {3 comments}
Letter from Kenny Leluma, former political advisor to the former ANC executive mayor of Bitou.

Open Letter 1 DA Out of Control in BitouOpen letter to the Premier of the Western Cape, Helen Zille:

Dear Ms Zille

Under other circumstances I would have sent this to your office. I have had a fair share of bad publicity and staying away from the hawkish eye of the media could do me some good. Unfortunately there’s no other way of letting you know that some things that are being said and done by your party are not going well down my throat.

You see, Madam Zille, there is no disputing that your party is a darling of the media and anybody who dares to say anything negative about the party of the saints risks the wrath of almost the entire print media. Anyway life is by definition a risk and we can’t run away from it. So, I’m taking this risk.

Congratulations for achieving yet another unqualified audit in your administration. Your MEC for Finance & Economic Development, Alan Winde remarked that you “take these results extremely serious as they are the most reliable indicator of how we are managing taxpayer’s money entrusted to us for service delivery.” I also concur with Derek Luyt of Public Service Monitor that good financial management doesn’t equate to good service delivery.

In 2007, Kwanokuthula went up in flames after the DA alleged that the ANC administration had institutionalised corruption at Bitou Municipality. Despite pleas that the DA must submit proof to the police for further investigation, no evidence was ever brought to the fore.

On the other hand the ANC in Bitou committed to achieve and instil a culture of clean audits within three years from 2006. The clean audit was achieved within two years, and all subsequent years returned same results. The same body that audits your administration audited the Bitou municipality, using the same tools. Your refusal therefore to accept the audit results of Bitou has been nothing but hypocrisy.

Bitou municipality under the ANC delivered high quality drinking water, and for two successive years the quality of our drinking water was rated third highest in the country, after Johannesburg and Cape Town. In fact we were on course to eclipse Cape Town in this regard. Refuse removal was collected everyday as per schedule. We provided reliable electricity to all.  And the programme to tar every street in the townships was on schedule to be completed by 2012.

It was the ANC that brought Red Door nearer to the people. It was the DA that closed the office, claiming unfunded mandate without resolving people’s problems to access services by the agency. So, on service delivery, the DA couldn’t claim that the ANC failed.

In the absence of credible attack on service delivery history, you opted to what is fashionable in politics, perception. You started making unsubstantiated allegations that everything and anything ANC is corrupt. That strengthened darling status with the gullible media and some sections of our community.

The DA incited hatred against the ANC by claiming wide scale and supported corruption in Bitou. You went further by claiming that Bitou was bankrupt. To date, and six years later, you have never proved any of the two.

As you persisted with allegations that the municipality is bankrupt, the CFO of the municipality took an unprecedented action of issuing a public statement refuting claims by the DA in this regard. I’ve heard that you are planning to suspend and dismiss him for telling the truth.

While you are still trying to find proof of corruption you first claimed in 2005, the DA councillors have become a law unto themselves. They are involved in procurement. The appointment of a security company and the shortlisting of the companies for the running of the airport are but just two examples.

But you didn’t end up there. The Speaker of the council, Johann Brummer has his girlfriend as a Personal Assistant. She gives instructions to officials and everybody is cowed lest they offend the ruthless Brummer. You will remember that in 2009 a senior advocate found that Brummer was not fit to be a councillor. You declined to remove him because as a highly trained apartheid covert operative his skills were needed to for your Kwanokuthula Project.

You then rewarded his covert activities by appointing him The Speaker of the council. He immediately demanded that everybody must toe the line or face his brutality. When he failed to intimidate the ANC councillors, he went to court to seek validation of his autocratic behaviour. The High Court ruled in favour of the ANC councillors and he was ordered to pay costs of the case. This is about R1,2m that must be paid by the ratepayers.

A few weeks ago, the DA issued a public statement vowing that the ANC councillors will bear the costs of this case which was initiated by Brummer. The court has found that the ANC councillors behaved well and that the municipality must pay not only Brummer’s costs but also those of the ANC councillors. Will the DA foot the bill, or will a financier be found to help out? After all, you always tell us about the benevolent acts of big business to help you ‘fix’ Bitou.

I have also noted that your Anton Bredell said that he’ll await the very council that lost the case to analyse it and advise if he could resume investigations against ANC councillors. We all know that you are going to ignore the court ruling and find another way to try to remove ANC councillors. We also know that you’ll have the media behind you, but rest assured that this is one war you will never win. You’ll have the might of the partisan media on your side and abuse ratepayers’ purse; we will have the insatiate appetite for truth and justice.

Kenny Leluma

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