Update

UPDATE 13 August @ 17:05 - Knysna municipality spokesperson Christopher Bezuidenhoudt, responding to questions about Dion George’s statement on why the municipality kept secret the National Prosecuting Authority’s decision not to prosecute former executive mayor Eleanore Bouw-Spies, said the matter was brought to the attention of council at its meeting of 6 August 2020.

“Council requested that the Acting Municipal Manager prepare a report for the next council meeting for discussion. We are therefore not able to comment at this stage,” he said.

KNYSNA NEWS - The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Knysna welcomes the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions to not prosecute the criminal charge laid against former Executive Mayor, Eleanore Bouw-Spies.

The decision to lay a criminal charge was taken by Council in September 2018 after the so-called “De Swart Report” made a recommendation to Council that this is done so that allegations made against the former Executive Mayor could be investigated properly.

The docket was investigated by the South African Police Services and submitted to the Director of Public Prosecutions for a decision. The Director of Public Prosecutions decided not to prosecute.

On 11 March 2019 Captain RP van der Westhuizen, from the Directorate for Priority Crime Investigation: Commercial Crime, informed Mr Johnny Douglas (who was Acting Municipal Manager at that time) by email that the case had been closed by their unit and that they considered the matter to be finalised.

The DA is seriously concerned about the fact that this information was divulged neither to the Council nor the public. In fact, former Executive Mayor Eleanore Bouw-Spies was only informed by Knysna Municipality about the decision at the end of July 2020, and she would not have been informed at all had MEC Anton Bredell not requested the Knysna Municipality to provide him with information regarding the case.

The DA requests that the Acting Municipal Manager, Dr Scheepers, investigate why the decision by the Director of Public Prosecutions to not prosecute former Executive Mayor, Eleanore Bouw-Spies, was kept secret for such a long time.

The people of Knysna have been misinformed about allegations against the former mayor for a long time, purely to give credence to the opportunistic move by former mayor Mark Willemse to remove her from office. Clearly, no substance whatsoever has been found to these allegations and the outcome hidden to keep the people of Knysna in the dark.

We have asked the municipality to respond to the DA questions and we are waiting for the response. As soon as we get the response we will let you know.

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