KNYSNA POLITICAL NEWS - There is a noted lack of unity in the Knysna Unity Congress (KUC).

The infighting has reached boiling point as the party's secretary, Mandlenkosi Vincent Gana, is calling for Knysna Municipality to remove councillor Monwabisi Welcome Salaze as a councillor representing KUC, because his membership was terminated last year.

In an interview with Knysna-Plett Herald (KPH) on Friday, Gana said KUC held its conference in October last year and resolved to terminate Salaze's KUC party membership. 

"KUC was given a mandate by its members to work with the DA in council until that mandate is changed, but Salaze is doing his own thing and working with the ANC. We never took a resolution to work with the ANC," he said. (Given the ACDP's somewhat rickety past relationship with the DA, KUC represents a swing vote for control over the municipality, should the party side with the DA.)

Gana said Salaze did not pay the 5% of his salary levy to the organisation as per the constitution of KUC and had not been taking his mandate from KUC.

"We wrote letters to him and he undermined us because he was the chairman of KUC. In October KUC held its conference, where it elected new leaders. It is that conference which resolved to terminate his membership and remove him from council as he is not following the constitution of the KUC," he said.

Gana said the KUC informed Salaze and then Acting Municipal Manager Dr Louis Scheepers about the matter, but nothing was done to remove Salaze.

"We sent a letter last year informing the municipality that Salaze's membership was terminated but to no avail. Councillor Lorriane Opperman was removed by the DA three months after our letter. This shows that Salaze is being protected by the municipality," he said.

But according to Salaze, he is still the chairman of KUC.

"Everything is still the same, I am still the chair. Gana is being used by the DA but his plans have never worked," he said.

Knysna municipal spokesperson Christopher Bezuidenhout said Dr Louis Scheepers, the previous Knysna acting municipal manager, received correspondence from attorneys acting on behalf of two opposing groupings of the party. "In light of this, the then Acting Municipal Manager, Louis Scheepers, informed the IEC of the dispute, and they did not declare a vacancy," he said.

'We bring you the latest Plettenberg Bay, Garden Route news'