Twist in Oudtshoorn saga
DA federal executive postpones motion of no confidence meeting until Thursday
THE DA’s federal executive and their provincial counterparts are at loggerhead over the fate of the embattled Oudtshoorn municipality, effectively sabotaging the DA’s own take-over bid due to disagreements over who should lead the town’s council.
DA members claimed the real reason why the party’s much-anticipated take-over bid had to be shelved, was due to DA leader Mmusi Maimane intervening at the eleventh hour – effectively preventing local DA structures from taking back control of the local government authority during Friday’s council meeting.
The council meeting was set to vote on a crucial motion of no confidence in the town’s mayor Gordon April (ANC) and his deputy Vlancio Donson ( Icosa), but most importantly was expected to approve the town’s budget and its integrated development plan (IDP).
The motion of no confidence would effectively have given the DA/Cope alliance the voting majority in the town, paving the way for them to officially take over the town council.
But the meeting was unexpectedly postponed, initially until the afternoon to allow the DA’s Federal structure to discuss the team to be elected to lead the municipality, before eventually being postponed until Thursday.
As the dust settled, outraged party members who have fiercely been lobbying for the DA to take decisive action in Oudtshoorn, claimed the party’s federal executive had their reservations about taking over the local government ahead of next year’s local government elections.
Five DA members said there was unhappiness with the DA team chosen to lead the municipality, while another claimed there was concern that an NPP member was set to be part of the town’s executive.
The DA’s provincial chairman, Anton Bredell, insisted there was no dispute or disagreement between the Fedex, the Western Cape leadership or the DA caucus in Oudtshoorn.
“The Federal executive structure merely wants to ensure that the recovery plan for the municipality – that will be presented at the council meeting – will indeed have the capacity to put the municipality back on the road to service delivery as well as financial and political stability,” he said.
Bredell said the fact that the council meeting was postponed due to Fedex’s discussions on Oudtshoorn did not reflect negatively on the provincial government.
“Nobody expected that the speaker was going to resign, it was unexpected and the DA then had to step in and appoint a speaker. The party has set procedures to approving candidates for deployment to ensure that the best and most capable person is chosen. We are following proper procedures,” he said.
DA Fedex chairman, James Selfe, did not respond to further inquiries regarding the decision on Oudtshoorn.
Meanwhile, Oudtshoorn mayor Gordon April said the town’s speaker Chris MacPherson had misled the council and the administration when he said that the budget had to be approved by the premier and her cabinet.
April stressed that he had not received any correspondence from the provincial government indicating that the council had been placed under administration in terms of section 139 of the constitution.
April said the DA was playing political games while the community and the poor had to pay the price.
“It is because of illegal interference from the provincial government that the Oudtshoorn municipality finds itself in this precarious position. I call on the DA and the provincial government to stop playing political games with the lives of the poor people of the greater Oudtshoorn,” he said.