Colourful coalition politics in Knysna on a knife edge due to race

KNYSNA NEWS - Knysna Municipality's ruling ANC coalition has been dealt a major blow. The two Patriotic Alliance (PA) councillors, Beauty Charlie and Waleed Grootboom, yesterday resigned from the mayoral committee and withdrew from the coalition with the ANC, PBI and EFF, plunging the council into a governance crisis just over a year after the ANC seized power.

The move means that the four-party ANC alliance loses its majority in council and puts the PA into the position of kingmaker.

The pull-out by the PA comes after the appointment of four new permanent directors in the council on 1 September and follows statements by Kim that went viral on social media.

The four directors appointed are Olga Ndlovu (CFO), Adv Luvuyo Loliwe (Director of Corporate Services), Lindile Petuna (Director of Integrated Human Settlements) and Andiswa Dunywa (Director of Planning, Economic Development and Tourism).

PA leader Gayton McKenzie confirmed Grootboom and Charlie's resignations and withdrawals yesterday, 6 September. They will however remain in council as proportional representative councillors. "The ANC did not respect the coalition partners and made appointments against our express wishes," McKenzie said in a statement.

"The appointments were agreed to be according to the demographics and also of qualified persons. This did not happen according to our wishes and so the PA has left its coalition with the ANC in Knysna and our MMCs (municipal mayoral committee members) have resigned."

However, Kim's Susan Campbell pointed out that the ANC did not make appointments on their own.

"They could not have made the appointments without the support of the PA councillors. The appointments were in fact postponed on more than one occasion as they did not have the support of the PA. In the end the PA councillors voted for all the appointments," said Campbell.

The statements from Kim that went viral on social media, emphatically stated that qualified coloured candidates for the positions were ignored in favour of allegedly unqualified black candidates. "In a province where coloured people are in the majority, Knysna Municipality's top management includes six black senior managers and not a single coloured director,” said Kim.

Gayton McKenzie

The PA has relied on the vote of the coloured community as the cornerstone of its support base in the Western Cape. Former PA Western Cape deputy leader and now member of the DA, Sammy Claassen, also weighed in on the matter.

"Unacceptable, unjust, unfair," said Claassen in a statement. "The Patriotic Alliance/ANC coalition in Knysna Municipality voted against the appointment of competent, qualified and experienced coloured professionals during the appointment of its permanent directors.

"We hope the coloured voters who voted for these parties are paying attention. The Patriotic Alliance, PBI, ANC and EFF will gladly take your vote, but they will not hire directors who look like you."

McKenzie went live on Facebook on Tuesday night, saying, "The councillors resigned as MMCs this morning [6 September]. We were previously in a coalition with the DA and they failed the people of Knysna. We left that coalition. We entered into a coalition with the ANC and they have failed the people of Knysna. We cannot be in a coalition with either of these parties at this time.

"They have demonstrated an inability to respect the principles of the coalition. So the PA will now operate in council outside of the executive and will make decisions that we feel are in the best interests of the residents of Knysna. We remain the kingmakers and we can assure the residents of Knysna that we will use that position to ensure that the mayor, whoever that may be, and their executive exercises their duties in the best interests of the residents of Knysna."

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After the PA resignations, the speaker, mayor and deputy mayor of the alliance will remain in place until they resign, or until the alliance is voted out in a motion of no confidence. This will only happen if the PA elects to vote with the DA and Kim coalition. If not, the current coalition will remain in power as no one will have an outright majority to oust them from their seats.

Inaugural Council Meeting.