PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Bitou will have two new representatives on the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM), following a special council meeting held in Plettenberg Bay on 4 July.

Bitou DA councillor Dave Swart will be replacing DA representative Nompumelelo Ndayi, a proportional representative councillor, who will take up a permanent DA seat, following the election of former GRDM mayor, Memory Booysen, as a Member of the Provincial Legislature.

ANC Chief Whip and Bitou ward 5 councillor Samkele Mangxaba is the second Bitou councillor to serve on the GRDM. He takes the place of ward 6 councillor Nokuthula Seti of the ANC who has been appointed Bitou's Municipal Public Accounts Committee (MPAC) chairperson.

Ndayi served on the Bitou council from 2012. Previously, she was part of the mayoral committee and had been seconded to the GRDM a number of times since 2016.

Speaker Sandiso Gcabayi wished her well and said: "She was vibrant in council and rooted in the community and during my time as speaker there were no negative reports that I have received about her.

"We are proud of her as she is one of our own."

Ndayi said the decision to leave Bitou "is an exciting one", and she would "miss my former colleagues".

"Bitou council was and will always be vibrant and a space of contestation of ideas. I will miss my colleagues sorely and some members of the opposition," she said.

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