KNYSNA NEWS - In her resignation statement to council yesterday, Thursday 28 May, acting Knysna Municipal Manager Michelle Gratz called for the Knysna Municipality to be placed under administration and cited the reasons for her leaving as family commitments, a ‘’broken’’ municipality and specifically the interference of an unnamed ‘’external organisation with personal agendas’’ in municipal affairs.
The Chief Financial Officer Mbulelo Memani and Ward 10 Coucillor Peter Myers have also resigned.
According to Gratz, she was contractually obliged to give two weeks’ notice but asked the council to leave with immediate effect. ‘’My extended contract expires on 18 August. I am required to give 14 days’ notice but I respectfully ask that tomorrow [29 May] be my last day.’’
Dion George, the constituency head for the DA in Knysna said the party is sorry to see her go. “She did a good job in a short space of time under extremely difficult circumstances. When the previous MM, Dr Sitembele Vatala, was suspended in February, the Knysna Ratepayers Association asked that the CFO be suspended as well. In the last week the Knysna Ratepayers Association sent a letter to the Speaker as well as to Dr Gratz demanding that the CFO be investigated.”
He said some disagreed with this, and while the DA is not pointing fingers, the DA caucus supports an investigation as there are many questions that need to be answered. “Why did the municipality run out of money? A year ago Knysna was literally stuck in stalemate.”
He said Knysna is a small town with several influential personalities. “People are aligned to different factions, but then fall out and former friends become enemies overnight. Personal attacks are at the order of the day. The town has been captured.”
He said treasury is looking into the municipality’s finances. “There are two ways to handle the situation. Council can be dissolved and the municipality placed under administration, or council can remain intact while national and provincial experts are called in. I prefer the latter option as we need a stable government.
It is a great pity that Knysna has lost Dr Gratz, but she obviously found herself in an impossible situation. Her resignation has brought the massive problems out in the open, and at least now we should see some progress. We will get to the bottom of this.”
Listen to her resignation speech here.
This is a developing story.
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