DA boots Knysna councillor from party

KNYSNA POLITICAL NEWS - The Democratic Alliance announced this afternoon that the DA has terminated the membership of one of its councillors in Knysna, Lorraine Opperman of Ward 11.

This means that she also loses her seat on council and that a vacancy in council must be declared.

The termination of Opperman’s membership follows a council meeting on Thursday 28 January in which she voted with the ANC camp against a DA motion to curtail the powers of Mayor Ricky van Aswegen. The council is ANC led.

According to the DA Constituency Head of Knysna, Dion George, the DA led the motion to allow the full council to make decisions. “As a single party we have the most seats on council and this would have given us more power to vote for the good of the entire Knysna.”

He said councillors are obliged to vote with their caucus. Opperman did not, ensuring that the DA motion failed to carry.

“On Friday we filed a complaint with the DA’s Federal Legal Commission and Ms Opperman was informed at 09:00 on Saturday that her membership has been terminated. She was given 24 hours to provide reasons why her membership should be reinstated, but we have had no response from her.”

In early January a DA led motion to take over as ruling party in Knysna was defeated when a councillor voted with the ANC camp during a secret ballot. The one rogue vote from within its own camp cost the DA dearly as its Motion Of No Confidence in the current Mayor, Speaker and Deputy was defeated despite the party striking a deal with the ACDP that gave them the majority vote (11) in the council that numbers just 21 councillors.

Dion George