No-confidence vote against Lobese fails

Update

PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - An attempt by the ANC to oust Bitou mayor Peter Lobese was unsuccessful after a motion of no confidence against him failed during a special council meeting on Tuesday 5 December.

This endeavour has in the meantime been labelled by Bitou's leadership a "cheap political" publicity stunt by the ANC as a result of "bitterness" over losing control of Bitou.

The ANC and Lobese's Active United Front (AUF) formed a coalition to govern the town after Bitou became a hung council following the last local government elections.

However, the relationship between the two parties deteriorated to such an extent that Lobese announced, seven months into the coalition, that he was terminating the agreement.

This was followed by intense discussions between the AUF and the DA, which resulted in a new coalition agreement.

ANC denies 'bitterness'
The ANC denies that the motion had anything to do with bitterness, saying it stemmed from a culmination of issues including "exorbitant spending", the lack of service delivery and questionable leadership.

Lobese was criticised in recent weeks about his spending, such as, among others, the more than R100 000 a month forked out on home security as well as the "short-term" rental of a luxury SUV that cost taxpayers just under R60 000 a month after the mayor's official vehicle was involved in an accident.

ANC subregional coordinator Putco Mapitiza said they had raised these issues at various council meetings but received "wishy-washy" responses.

'It is Hollywood, all acting'
"Very little has been done in terms of service delivery and about the leadership. It is Hollywood in Bitou – it is all acting, and the council is running on autopilot," Mapitiza said.

He added that he believed Bitou would most likely receive its first qualified audit in years due to these issues.

Bitou's leadership denies all the claims, as contained in a statement by municipal manager Thabo Ndlovu, who said, "These three allegations of exorbitant spending, lack of service delivery and lack of leadership are too vague and lack substantiation.

"We have decided to respond, however, we deny all of them and further reject them with the contempt they deserve.

"These are nothing but a cheap political publicity stance (sic) by the ANC, which remains bitter of (sic) losing power and control of Bitou."

'ANC councillors owe Bitou'
The statement continues, "We wish to place on record that, after the mayor was elected into office, he discovered that ANC councillors owe the municipality more than half-a-million, about R700 000.

"The council mandated the mayor to attend to this matter. It is very clear that these motions are because of this outstanding debt.

"Their main fear is that, if they don't pay back this money, the municipality is going to litigate them, take the matter further and once the court grants a judgement in favour of the municipality, those affected councillors will be disqualified from holding public office and will have to resign."

Ndlovu further said that the mayor and his mayoral committee are playing an effective oversight role in terms of ensuring there is effective service delivery, good governance, administrative stability and curbing of wasteful expenditure.

"These corporate principles of governance and political management of our institution is based on the coalition agreement signed between the AUF and the DA."

The municipal manager said that it was very clear from the outset that the ANC did not have the numbers to carry the motion through and the agenda was therefore not to succeed with the motion.

He added that they called upon those bringing the motion to provide more details and substantiate the allegations with concrete evidence.

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ARTICLE: YOLANDÉ STANDER, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD CORRESPONDENT

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