DA presses on with Myers disciplinary action

The Knysna council has referred the disciplinary action against former deputy mayor, councillor Peter Myers, to its disciplinary committee to investigate and make a finding on any alleged breach of provisions of the code of conduct for municipal councillors – and to make an appropriate recommendation.

This transpired at a special council meeting on 23 March, where the chairperson for the disciplinary committee was also elected.

According to the agenda, the following complaints against Myers were lodged at the Speaker’s office:

Complaint 1: It is alleged that Myers disclosed privileged and confidential information in his possession, relating to a long list of applicants for the positions of director community services and director corporate services, thereby compromising the recruitment and selection process and breaching Sections 2 and 10 of the code of conduct.

Complaint 2: This complaint relates to statements Myers made during an ordinary council meeting on 11 August 2017, thereby allegedly abusing his position in council to create division and strife, thus breaching Section 2 of the code.

Complaint 3: The complaint relates to statements made and the general conduct of Myers during an ordinary council meeting on 11 August 2017, allegedly displaying conduct unbecoming of a public representative and councillor, and breaching Section 2 of the code of conduct.

The Speaker determined that, on reasonable suspicion, she believes a provision of this code had been breached. The office of the Speaker gave Myers a reasonable opportunity to reply in writing to the allegations, and he responded in detail.

It was recommended by council that the allegations be referred to the disciplinary committee to proceed with the matter as provided for in Section 14(1)(b)(i)(ii) of the code.

“This is an absolute disgrace. Not all information has been provided in this report, neither does it contain my reply,” Myers told council during the meeting. “The report is biased, deficient and incomplete,” he added.

Other councillors also asked why the matter was being discussed at the meeting. As one councillor stated, “This is an internal DA problem, why make DA internal issues our issue?”

Cope councillor Ricky van Aswegen agreed. “What is the objective of this report, it does not contain enough information for council to make a decision – don’t make fools of us,” he said.

Speaker Georlene Wolmarans said that all information, including Myers’ reply, would be submitted to the committee after which they would report back to council.