PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Questions over the repayment of golden handshakes to two top Bitou municipal officials, amounting to over R5m, have again been raised in the Bitou Council, this time in the form of motions of questions by the ANC caucus.
The questions refer to a court order in October, brought by the DA, in which Mbulelo Memani was reinstated in his position as municipal manager.
The new coalition consisting of the DA, AUF and IPM had reinstated Memani.
However, a mutual termination agreement between the former ANC-led council, brokered by the then mayor Claude Terblanche of the PDC, had seen Memani receiving R4.2m. His legal representative, Bulelani Bans, was paid R250 000.
On 18 October, Judge Deidre Kusevitsky of the Western Cape High Court ordered that Memani repay the money 'forthwith'.
But now Felix Lötter, acting CFO (he has since moved from CFO to another position), has also been named, and questions have been asked about his own R1.2m golden handshake, and whether he has repaid that.
Cllrs Samkele Mangxaba and Sandiso Gcabayhi of the ANC caucus have given notice of the motions of questions to be tabled at the next Bitou Council meeting on 31 March.
Mangxaba said he had sent a correspondence to the office of the MEC: Anton Bredell and the executive mayor, Jessica Kamkam, on 3 October, enquiring about Memani's reinstatement.
Due to lack of urgency and reluctance to respond to the details of my correspondence, I hereby formally tender the following questions: On the 21 October 2024, a Court Order dated 18 October 2025 (case: 16932/2024), the ruling was as follows:
The termination of Mr Memani's employment as the municipality's municipal manager is revoked;
Mr Memani is ordered to repay forthwith to the municipality the full amount paid to him pursuant to the mutual termination agreement;
The fifth respondent (Bulelani Bans Inc) is ordered to repay forthwith to the Municipality the full amount paid to it pursuant to the mutual termination agreement.
Has Mr Memani paid back the full amount as per the court ruling?
Have we (the council) recovered the monies paid to Bulelani Bans Inc on legal fees?
If repayments were done, can we be provided proof of records of the repayments?
Samkele Mangxaba also said in a second motion that in May 2024, council had entered a mutual termination of employment settlement with Lötter as a CFO of Bitou Municipality, and Lötter was subsequently appointed senior manager of governance and compliance.
Since the court judgment dated 21 October 2024 deemed the settlement made with the municipal manager unlawful, I hereby wish to tender the following questions:
What is the municipality's position on the settlement amount paid to Felix Lötter?
Has the municipality recovered the monies from Mr Lötter?
On 4 March, Bitou mayor Jessica Kamkam said in a statement to Knysna-Plett Herald her office 'has engaged with the relevant departments to obtain a comprehensive status update on the recovery process'.
"The calculation of the quantum is directly related to the SARS PAYE payments. SARS needs to be engaged and a repayment done due to the court order requiring repayment of all monies," she said. "The municipality will move expeditiously to ensure the court order is given effect to."
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