PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS – Three top officials in the Bitou council will be getting new wheels costing the municipality a total of R2m, following the approval of a draft budget by the council on Monday 29 May.
Those in the ruling alliance in Bitou who will get the vehicles are Mayor Dave Swart (DA), Deputy Mayor Mavis Busakwe of the Active United Front (AUF), and Speaker Claude Terblanche of the Plett Democratic Congress (PDC).
The new vehicles are the source of controversy between the council and the Plett Ratepayers Association, who have called on the Minister in the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Thembisile Nkadimeng, to take steps to "pull the Bitou Council into line".
The Ratepayers have launched an application in the Western Cape High Court, which will be heard on 16 August, challenging the "accepted practice" before 2017 of municipalities to provide mayoral vehicles.
Municipal Manager Mbulelo Memani confirmed to Knysna-Plett Herald that the vehicles are budgeted for and the purchases will go ahead.
Bitou Mayor Dave Swart
Steve Pattinson, chairman of Plettenberg Ratepayers, said Swart had refused to give an undertaking that the council will hold off on the purchases until after the court hearing. The Ratepayers' legal challenge started after 3 April 2017 with the publication of a government notice that outlawed the practice.
"In the case of Bitou Municipality (then under ANC control), it ignored the notice and continued providing mayors with dedicated luxury vehicles," said Pattinson in a letter to Nkadimeng.
"Consequently, the Plettenberg Bay Ratepayers and Residents Association has objected and tried to get council (Bitou) to recover several million rand of irregular expenditure, which the municipality is required to do in terms of section 167 of the Municipal Finance Management Act (MFMA)."
Pattinson said Bitou Municipality has refused to do that and left them with no option but to take legal action.
"We have now seen that Bitou Municipality has budgeted R2m for no fewer than three vehicles (mayor, deputy mayor and speaker) for this coming financial year (2023/24). When we saw this, we approached the mayor, reminding him of pending litigation, and requested an undertaking not to proceed with budgeted expenditure until such time as the court has decided the matter."
Bitou Deputy Mayor Mavis Busakwe
He said Swart has refused to give that undertaking. "From the outset, we had hoped to avoid this litigation, but we have not succeeded, and the mayor's latest uncooperative and dismissive response means there is no chance of avoiding the litigation."
Pattinson said in his letter to Nkadimeng: "We are advising you of all this because your ministry promulgated the regulation, has oversight over its enforcement, and can be expected to account for the failure to comply with it. Kindly take steps to pull the Bitou Council into line."
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