Knysna deputy mayor hits back after removal

AXED Knysna Municipality deputy mayor Peter Myers says his recent removal by mayor Eleanore Bouw-Spies from her mayoral committee (Mayco) during a reshuffle will not deter him from his job and representing the people of his ward.

During a special council meeting Bouw-Spies announced that independent councillor Velile Waxa would replace Myers on her Mayco.

Myers was removed as the municipality’s deputy mayor after fellow DA councillors voted in favour of a motion of no confidence in him during a special meeting last month. His removal came after he was said to have alienated his colleagues in the council, “virtually without exception” during his tenure, according to the party.

Yesterday Myers said that he believed his removal from the Mayco was linked to his axing as deputy mayor. “I have been removed as a portfolio chairperson and the independent councillor was appointed to the mayoral committee. He now has the planning and housing portfolio. I am just an ordinary councillor,” he said.

“The reshuffle had everything to do with me being removed as the deputy mayor because (that) was the portfolio chair for finance and governance. The purpose for removing me as the deputy mayor was to remove me from the mayoral committee.

‘‘Under the legislation, the deputy mayor is automatically a member of the mayoral committee. In order to get me off the mayoral committee, they had to work me out as deputy mayor, which is what they did.”

Asked what he made of the reshuffle, Myers said: “It is very difficult for me to comment on that because the appointment of the portfolio committee is the prerogative of the mayor.”

Due to the last council meeting yesterday, Bouw-Spies’s office could not comment by deadline.