PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Bitou mayor Peter Lobese, almost five years after his election, has been ousted following a unanimous vote of no confidence during a special council meeting this morning, Friday 16 April.
In a surprising move the two Bitou rival parties, the DA and the ANC, voted together stating that the cooperation was necessary to deal with issues “of critical importance to the Bitou community”.
Lobese, who represents the AUF, became mayor after a close local government election result in 2016. The DA won six seats with 49% of the votes, the ANC six seats with 41% and the AUF a single seat with 5%. The AUF formed a coalition with the ANC to govern Bitou, with Lobese becoming the mayor.
In May 2017, Lobese left the ANC to form a new coalition with the DA, citing corruption in the ANC as his reason. This relationship however soured and about a year later the AUF was back with the ANC.
DA Caucus Leader Bill Nel described Lobese’s reign as a “chaotic and irresponsible dictatorship” that was made possible by the executive mayoral electoral system. “Both parties agree that the ‘kingmaker’ position that allows a small inexperienced party without provincial or national backing to gain the executive mayoral position should never be permitted,” Nel said.
He added that the ANC, by virtue of the Speaker’s casting vote, could have passed the motion of no confidence without the support of the DA. “But the two parties agreed that to salvage the damage done and despite political differences, they would have to vote together to pass crucial motions on a variety of matters that have been kept in suspense for a long time, as well as on matters that are deeply concerning to all our communities".
Nel said that the DA and ANC would be holding collective meetings from Monday. Some of the issues that have been identified include housing allocation and completion of projects. “The parties are at one that the chaos in the allocation of housing and the completion of housing projects must be addressed urgently, " Nel said. "The parties also agree that long outstanding disciplinary action for known cases of corruption and irregular appointments must be taken urgently.”
Nel explained that both parties would continue with their own election campaigns and fight the upcoming election.
Lobese will now become an ordinary PR councillor and the deputy mayor, Sandiso Gcabayi of the ANC, will act in the position of mayor until the results of the upcoming local government elections are announced.
More information will follow as it becomes available.
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