Judgment reserved in 'illegal jobs' court application

Update

KNYSNA NEWS - An affidavit by the former Knysna acting municipal manager, Johannes Jonkers, submitted in the Western Cape High Court, said claims by members of the new ANC-led coalition that he appointed eight political appointees were "false, misleading and a lie… and a fraud on the Court".

In the latest development in the "cadre deployment" saga, the DA has brought an urgent application to stop salary payment to eight people who were appointed to the office of political office bearers after the new ANC-led coalition in Knysna took power on 31 August.

The application was launched after an in-committee council meeting on 8 November which resolved to pay the salaries, the High Court heard.

Jonkers' explosive affidavit was contained in the bundle of documents in the application, submitted by the DA and by DA member and former Knysna speaker Julie Lopes, asking Judge Robert Henny to stop the salaries from being paid.

Henny reserved judgment after Thursday's hearing. Advocate Alfred Cockrell, SC, appeared for some of the councillors listed among the respondents in the application. He argued that money to be spent was "only" R192 000 and if it could not be recovered from the appointees, it can be recouped from the councillors who made the decision.

Adv Anton Katz SC, for the DA, argued that when it comes to wasteful expenditure of public money the amount is irrelevant. "When it comes to corruption, even a R50 bribe to the speed cop is an ill that courts won't tolerate," said Katz.

Knysna Mayor Aubrey Tsengwa

'I did not appoint them'

It appears that Deputy Mayor Alberto Marbi and Acting Director of Corporate Services Luvuyo Loliwe had alleged in replying affidavits that Jonkers had appointed the eight while he held the office of acting municipal manager - a claim that Jonkers strongly denies. In his affidavit, which names Marbi, the new Acting Municipal Manager Roland Butler, Loliwe, Speaker Mncedisi Skosana and Mayor Aubrey Tswengwa as the respondents, Jonkers said that these allegations "constitute a fraud on the Court".

He said that while he had sent out an email to Corporate Services that the contracts had been signed and "were ready for collection", he had retracted that email.

"Although I physically signed the contracts, the contracts were never communicated to the appointees," reads Jonkers' affidavit.

"Therefore there was no contract between the municipality and the appointees before I resigned from office on 24 October."

He said he had also instructed the payroll office not to pay the appointees.

He said his actions had clarified his intentions as the accounting officer and his advice to his "political principles [sic]".

"The respondents have misled and defrauded the court by mentioning that I initially signed the contract, then deliberately withholding the fact that I subsequently retracted my email and never concluded an employment contract on behalf of the municipality and the appointees," Jonkers' affidavit said.

"They have knowingly deposed to false evidence, wholly inconsistent with the truth. There [sic] affidavits do not constitute full, frank, and honest disclosure."

Current Acting Municipal Manager Roland Butler

'Flagrant illegality'

He also denied an allegation contained in Loliwe's affidavit that his resignation was for personal reasons unrelated to these appointments.

"My resignation, in no small part, was due to the flagrant illegality committed by various respondents in appointing the appointees," Jonkers claimed.

Acting Director of Corporate Services Luvuyo Loliwe