New Beyers Naude municipality to set up shop in Graaff-Reinet
PLANS are in place to set up the newly merged Beyers Naude local municipality’s offices in Graaff-Reinet following last week’s municipal elections, which saw the ANC marginally winning a majority vote.
The municipality was formed as a result of a merger of the Camdeboo, Ikwezi and Baviaans local municipalities.
The decision was made by the Municipal Demarcation Board after it was decided that Ikwezi and Baviaans were not financially viable to stand on their own.
Beyers Naude interim municipal manager Noel Pietersen said yesterday a special council meeting had been called for next Thursday to elect a new government.
He said they would elect a mayor, a speaker and a mayoral committee.
The ANC took 51.05% of the votes, with the DA trailing at 46.59%.
The ANC now has 14 seats while the DA has 13 in the municipal council.
While the EFF secured 1.74% of the votes, it failed to secure a seat in council.
At the Thursday meeting, Pietersen said, the council would also consider his appointment as acting municipal manager for six months.
He said jobs were safe and workers need not worry.
“All the workers who are permanent don’t need to worry about their jobs.
“The council meeting on Thursday will also discuss how we integrate all the offices,” he said.
He understood that the new municipality would inherit all the financial problems of the Baviaans and Ikwezi municipalities.
“We will discuss in council how to consolidate budgets and how we deal with debts, like Eskom and other creditors owed,” Pietersen said.
“We will inherit all the problems from those municipalities, but the Department of Cooperative Governance and the national Treasury will assist us.”
Cooperative Governance spokesman Mamnkeli Ngam said the future of workers depended on the new municipal council.
“It will be the new council that decides on the future of the existing contracts of the municipal managers,” he said. “They will make their own decisions.” Beyers Naude was a South African cleric, theologian and a leading Afrikaner antiapartheid activist.