Speaker to review decision to axe Delft DA councillor

A DA councillor is facing the axe after he was found guilty of misusing his position to improperly benefit a homeless woman by giving her authority to occupy a vacant plot in Delft.

On Wednesday the council was meant to approve a recommendation that Michael Toko, a ward councillor in Delft, be removed from office.

However, Speaker Dirk Smit said the matter would be referred back to his office as new information had come to light.

ANC leader in council, Tony Ehrenreich, objected but Smit made a ruling that he would consider the new information.

According to council documents, Toko had given a woman, Shariefa Abrahams, and her family a letter with the official letterhead of the city, “without any legal basis or authority”, permitting them to occupy a vacant plot in Delft.

The disciplinary committee found him guilty of misusing his position and privileges as a councillor to “improperly” benefit Abrahams and her family.

Abrahams presented the letter when she was approached by law enforcement officers who came to the site after receiving complaints.

Abrahams and her family were living in a car on a vacant

The disciplinary committee found him guilty of misusing his position

plot in Delft when she approached Toko for assistance. Abrahams erected a bungalow on the site and also used the letter from Toko to get financial assistance from a mosque.

A council report states that Abrahams now refuses to leave.

The committee accepted that Toko was guilty on the two main allegations against him.

Toko testified that he knew he was wrong to issue the letter but said he was a new councillor. Smit said the new information was that the offence may have occurred in 2011.

“If it happened before or during induction training for new councillors then it could influence the sentence which means the recommendation to remove him from office could change,” Smit said.

The committee said it had also considered that Toko was probably motivated by sympathy but found that his actions were not the actions of a responsible ward councillor.

The committee said Toko “perpetuated the enormous problem the city has with land invasion”.

Smit is still deciding whether to take action against ANC chief whip Xolani Sotashe and Ehrenreich after they made “serious allegations” that mayor Patricia de Lille had lied about the city’s 92.9 percent budget spend.

He said he had given the two councillors an opportunity to explain their remarks in the media.

Smit said they still had time to respond and if they did not, he would apply his mind to the information before him in deciding whether to take action against them.