Cape Town - Appointments to the ANC-led Knysna Municipality are in the spotlight again, less than two weeks after a Western Cape High Court declared that its appointments of an acting chief financial officer and acting director of corporate services were “unlawful, null and void”.
The two appointees whose appointments were reversed by the court were Londiwe Sotshede as acting chief financial officer, and Luvuyo Loliwe as acting director of corporate services, who have both since left office.
The matter went to the high court after an urgent application by local government MEC Anton Bredell earlier this year seeking to stop the appointments, in which he said neither of them met the necessary criteria to qualify for their positions.
In the latest furore, the DA, which previously led the council before an ANC/Patriotic Alliance/Plaaslike Besorgde Inwoners/EFF coalition took over in August last year, is upset by the appointment of former ANC MP Bruce Kannemeyer to replace Loliwe.
DA Knysna Municipality caucus chairperson Jason White said the decision to appoint Kannemeyer, who in 2006 was convicted of stealing from Parliament in the Travelgate scandal, raised serious concerns about the integrity and transparency of the coalition’s governance.
“Should any evidence of misconduct or mismanagement emerge, the DA will not hesitate to take appropriate action and hold him accountable,” he said.
Reached for comment, provincial ANC spokesperson Sifiso Mtsweni said: “We are still enquiring with the caucus there in Knysna as we were not made aware of such decisions.
“We don’t get involved in the day-to-day activities of the municipality, as the provincial leadership, but get regular briefings from caucus. We will seek audience with our caucus in Knysna and get to understand how this appointment was arrived at.”
Meanwhile, ActionSA Western Cape provincial chairperson Michelle Wasserman is considering suing the municipality if she discovers that salaries are paid to either Sotshede or Loliwe on the next ordinary pay day, June 25.
Wasserman, a former deputy mayor of Knysna, wrote to the Knysna municipal manager about the issue and said the municipality should also be taking steps to recover the remuneration already paid to Sotshede and Loliwe since February and March this year respectively.