Update

KNYSNA POLITICAL NEWS - Judgment in the court case, in which former Knysna mayor Mark Willemse is contesting his removal from the DA and thus as Ward 9 councillor and mayor in late September last year, has been concluded and judgment is being reserved.

An urgent Western Cape High Court application for interdictory relief that would reverse his removal from the DA was filed by Willemse's counsel in October last year.

Willemse, who was elected mayor of Knysna by council in mid-2018, maintains his removal was unlawful, and has survived two motions of no confidence brought against him by the DA since June 2018.

The matter was heard and concluded on Thursday 30 January and acting judge Siegfreid Gustav Sievers SC reserves judgment. While Sievers did not provide a timeframe for when he would deliver judgment, he indicated that it would be soon.

Willemse filed the application in October last year which was followed by a series of postponements.

The court case follows the unsuccessful hounding Willemse to resign as mayor for more than a year. The DA eventually terminated his party membership on 30 September. His mayoral seat was declared vacant shortly thereafter and the mayoral committee was disbanded. 

This has left Knysna without a mayor and mayoral committee and disrupted the regular course of municipal functioning.

Apart from asking the court to suspend the alleged "cessation" of his DA membership, he also sought an interdict restraining the DA, the IEC and local government MEC Anton Bredell from calling and setting a date for a by-election to fill his vacant seat.

This interdictory relief was granted by the court on 11 October last year.