More weight bears down on Waxa

New case opened against the disposed councillor

The term “It never rains but it pours” couldn’t be truer than in the case of Knysna’s former Ward 4 councillor Velile Waxa, as another docket against him was opened at the police station last week. Waxa was first charged with the murder of Ward 8 councillor Victor Molosi in July, and has been in custody since his arrest in August.

The independent councillor was dismissed on 1 November after the municipality requested local government MEC Anton Bredel to remove him because he was found guilty of interfering with the administration of the municipality by giving direct instructions to housing officials, interfering with the standard pricing of temporary municipal housing as well as verbally abusing a member of the public.

On Wednesday 7 November, Ward 4 community members opened a case against him based on the same findings. The ward’s ANC chairperson Samuel Manina said he and others followed instruction from the community to open a case against Waxa.

Manina said no one from the municipality approached them to tell them that their councillor had been removed from office and that they took it upon themselves to organise the meeting and address “the elephant in the room”.

“We used loudhailers and invited everyone to come to the meeting and so many things came out of that meeting. But what remains clear is that our councillor was corrupt and so was his committee because they were involved in the decision making,” said Manina. “Some people are still scared to share their stories, but this is a start,” he said.

Knysna police spokesperson Sergeant Chris Spies confirmed this week that a member of the public opened a case of fraud following alleged irregularities with procurement processes at the municipality during 2016.

“The matter was transferred to the commercial crimes unit based in Oudtshoorn… Investigation into this matter is still at a very early stage and no suspects have been arrested or charged yet.”