KNYSNA NEWS - Councillor Peter Myers will put forward a motion of no confidence to remove deputy mayor and Cope councillor Ricky van Aswegen at a special council meeting scheduled to take place on Monday 18 March.

"It has become obvious over the past number of months that councillor Van Aswegan, despite being the deputy mayor and mayoral committee member for governance and economic development, is not prepared to work constructively with the DA-led government in Knysna," Myers said in a statement. "This has led to an intolerable situation building up which has affected service delivery for all of the residents of Knysna. I am sure Van Aswegen's removal will lead to a great improvement in the governance issues in the municipality."

The motion was initially put forward at a special council meeting on Wednesday 13 March, which was also attended by the DA's political head for the Knysna constituency, Helen Zille. However, Myers requested that the motion be postponed to Monday without elaborating.

Myers himself was deputy mayor of Knysna in 2017 before he was booted out of the position by his own party. At the time, the DA stated that Myers had alienated his DA colleagues in the council and made unsubstantiated allegations against fellow councillors.

Van Aswegen was voted into the position of deputy mayor by the ANC after the ousting of former mayor Eleanore Bouw-Spies last year.

If the motion to remove Van Aswegen succeeds, Knysna will once again be without a deputy mayor until one of the other councillors are voted into that position.

Read a previous article here: Deputy Mayor: 'No hidden agenda'

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