Mayor refutes ANC claim

Constable says coalition government in the Central Karoo District municipality is intact

THE LEADER of the Karoo Democratic Force (KDF) and mayor in the Central Karoo District Municipality Noel Constable refuted claims by the ANC that they were “engaging” with their members.

Besides being mayor of the Central Karoo District Municipality which includes Matjiesfontein, Murraysburg and Beaufort West, Constable also serves as a councillor with the Beaufort West Local Municipality.

Last week the Beaufort West Municipality was the scene of a heated argument when the ANC proposed that the mayoral committee be dissolved. The DA-run council refused and instead appointed the deputy mayor, Magdalena Slabbert, to be mayor until the scheduled Ward 7 by-election takes place on May 24.

The Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) reported that Beaufort West had 4 131 registered voters and that the ward had been won by the DA candidate in the 2016 municipal elections with a voter turnout of 54.84%.

Constable said the KDF remained committed to “our coalition agreement” with the DA.

“The ANC are trying to do whatever it takes to prevent a forensic investigation into the financial maladministration, which took place while they were in office.

“They want to regain control of Beaufort West so that they can stop the planned investigation into questionable expenditure. The investigation must look into the spending of municipal funds as well as the appointment of service providers, which may have been done irregularly,” Constable said. ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs wrote in a press statement that ANC members were in discussion with the KDF and had together decided to table a “standard motion” for the mayoral committee to be dissolved.

Constable denied this and said that during their tenure the ANC had run the “municipality into the ground” and were “now trying to create political instability to prevent the KDF and our coalition partner, the DA, from turning things around”.

The coalition partners would not “buckle in the face of their (ANC) insults, attacks or their intimidation” and remained steadfast in their resolve to fix the municipality, he said.

(THE COALITION PARTNERS) WILL NOT BUCKLE IN THE FACE OF ANC INSULTS, ATTACKS OR INTIMIDATION