Update

KNYSNA NEWS - Knysna Council is set to meet tomorrow, Thursday 6 June, to consider another urgent directive from Western Cape Minister of Local Government and Environmental Affairs, Anton Bredell.

Bredell again wrote a letter to Council on 30 May calling for it to “voluntarily adopt” a Consolidated Executive Obligations Monitoring and Enforcement Framework (CEOMEF plan) to fix service delivery issues in the town, involving waste management, wastewater treatment and pollution.

He gave Council a deadline of five working days within which to adopt the plan.

According to a Knysna municipal spokesperson, an official notice of the meeting is yet to be sent out.
The CEOMEF document contains significant budgetary implications for the municipality.

In his letter dated 30 May, Bredell strongly recommended that the council voluntarily adopt the CEOMEF plan.

“If, in the circumstances of this matter, the allocated timeframes for the actions to be performed in terms of the CEOMEF are unable to be adhered to by the municipality due to budgetary or capacity constraints, these timeframes for completion may be adjusted by mutual agreement.

“Should the Municipal Council adopt the CEOMEF plan within five business days of receipt of this correspondence, I will not be recommending an intervention to the Provincial Executive and will instead closely monitor the implementation of the CEOMEF plan by the Municipality,” said Bredell.

He warned that should the municipality refuse to adopt the plan, or fails to implement it, “I will then proceed to recommend to the Provincial Executive that it intervene in terms of section 139(1) of the Constitution in the Knysna Municipality”.

This could be the precursor of placing Knysna under administration.

When asked for comment on Bredell’s letter, a spokesperson in Knysna Municipality’s communications department responded as follows: “As indicated previously, the Council remains committed to work with colleagues on provincial and national levels to ensure positive socio-economic change and growth, and dependable service delivery to all our residents. “

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