The DA lied their way into office and uses lies to remain in power
The problem with a lie is that it eats that fabric that makes one a human, the soul. A person who repeatedly lies become a soulless animal with predatory instincts, and devours everything and anything that smells of truth. The DA has become soulless as to them lying has become first nature.
The problem, though, is that except from some in the ANC, nobody wants to expose the DA lies, instead the party is portrayed as saints. This artificial elevation drives the party. It was for that reason that I was not surprised that David Christianson collected press statements and flagrantly biased newspaper articles and calls that exercise "research" that purportedly shows how badly the ANC ran Bitou Local Municipality (see here).
What Christianson hoped for was that some mainstream newspaper editor would remember him as an award-winning journalist and use his claptrap to rubbish the ANC as has been the norm. He might succeed in that, after all he is a heavyweight in the media and he comes from the party which in many editors' minds is an example of good governance. He is likely to get a boost from some mainstream newspapers without giving us the right to respond, but we shall not surrender on the altar of cowardice.
Christianson asks, "why Bitou", and goes on to give a flimsy if not dishonest reasons for picking up on Bitou. The truth is that there are at least two reasons why the DA has picked up Bitou for their consistent lies.
Before I come to those reasons, it is important to correct misinformation that the ANC was in charge of Bitou for 16 or 17 years. The ANC was in charge of Bitou since 2000. Now back to why the DA chose Bitou -
First, Bitou under the ANC was a model of good governance and excellent service delivery. The ANC council that was voted into office in 2006 delivered four consecutive clean audits. That is a hard pill to swallow for the DA.
To make matters worse, there was never service delivery riots in the town as the ANC delivered houses, provided the people with clean water (the water quality achieved three consecutive blue drop status, and was rated 3rd best quality in the country after Joburg and Cape Town and we were about to eclipsed Cape Town on our way to challenge Joburg), provided reliable electricity to all residents, built roads and streets in each of the townships, undertook one of the biggest project, Coming Together, in the town that would see improved national and provincial service points in the town being located in the two major townships of Kwanokuthula and New Horizon.
And whenever there was inadequacy in service delivery, the mayor would go and address the relevant community. He would own up on his council's delay in providing quality services to the community and he did that even when the DA provincial government tried to frustrate the municipality only because it was under the ANC rule.
Despite their battles with the DA provincial government, the ANC councilors never went to a single public meeting to blame the DA for any delays or failures. They were in government and accepted responsibility for government's failure whether it came from the DA provincial government or not.
Currently, the town is experiencing service delivery protests, and the DA blames the ANC for that. They do this despite it being no secret that the leaders of these protests actively campaigned for the DA during the 2011 elections.
The DA council refuses to address these residents' grievances. We were not really shocked when, in the presence of the media and police, Booysen said the police must be tough on protesters and treat them "just like during the time of PW Botha". He was echoing, Brummer.
Second, the ANC Councilors in Bitou are effective opposition and exposes many irregularities by the DA. We have also found space in electronic media to express our views and respond to the DA's ranting, which we had been denied in mainstream print media. The fact that we have exposed much corrupt behavior of DA councilors and deployees is a sore spot and this so-called research is just a DA fight back strategy.
David Christianson's so-called research is said to have been completed in September 2011. If that is so, why wait for seven months before it is published? This is an attempt to paper the cracks within the DA caused by a myriad of wrong decisions made since the party got into power. The DA is failing the people of Bitou, from ordinary people to businesses.
Most people voted the DA primarily so that the party can ensure that the "corrupt ANC people" can be arrested and jailed. Many now regret having believed the lies that there was large-scale corruption under the ANC while service delivery suffers. The deck of deception is falling flat.
But one can't fail to notice that COPE has just been added as an afterthought in the article. The whole thing was written to self-stroke the DA's bruised ego. And at the last minute, someone remembered that in order to try hold to their relationship with COPE, the latter must be mentioned.
Since getting into office the DA never started to govern. All they have been doing is to go around with huge egos trying to engrave their lies in the minds and hearts of people that the ANC mismanaged the town. Maybe it's time the DA takes to heart remarks by one of their attorneys when he advised them to "govern instead of making [themselves] look even more foolish with these unproven lies". The same attorney remarked that the DA has reached a point where they now "believe their own lies".
The DA can't claim to care about the poor. The ANC council was aware that people need skills and government intervention in order to improve their lives. The ANC municipality was also aware that not everybody would be absorbed in the formal businesses. For that reason, we brought RED Door to Plett. The DA council in their very first meeting closed down RED Door amidst claims that "this is not our function". The reason that the DA did this was to appease the Ratepayers Association which had in the past claimed to be apolitical but has since publicly thrown their weight behind the DA.
In denying the poor access to institutions that would help them start businesses, the rich's foothold on the poor would remain as they would remain working in their houses and gardens and be manipulated to vote for the party of the boss or madam lest they lose their jobs.
Unfortunately this strategy will not bring any long-term solutions. The town needs more than shop assistants and domestic workers. The economy must be diversified and black people must play a meaningful role than just being workers. No single black person owns business in town.
It is thick of Christianson to claim that the DA stands for "open opportunity model [where things are done] in a transparent and accountable way" and that the party fights cronyism. The truth is that immediately before last local government elections and since DA came into power at least the following happened -
a) A meeting held at a beach restaurant with Jeremy Ord of Dimension Data and senior DA politicians resulted in an IT deal worth at least R4, 2m being concluded. All tenders during the ANC rule were concluded in a transparent and legal process by municipal officials without any involvement of councilors, and losing bidders always had the right to challenge the bid outcome. In contrast, this one was opened and closed within minutes at a restaurant table with only DA officials and Dimension Data in attendance.
b) A company, Scorp Security, which had no mandatory registration certification with personnel that was not registered in terms of the country's laws and was not on the municipality's database, was appointed without an open tender or a transparent quotation as required by the law. The company was appointed at between R186 000 and R240 000 per month, excluding accommodation and related expenses.
c) A Consultant, Thys Giolimee, who was later illegally appointed Acting Municipal Manager, had to stand guard at Debra Nicholson, Brummer's live-in girlfriend. Giliomee lied that the flat he was living at was not available during the December time. Brummer and Nicholson were going on holiday and wanted someone to guard their house. The municipality paid Nicholson so that Giolimee can guard her house, and the money was paid into Brummer's account.
These things and others that I've not mentioned show that while the ANC did not "degenerate [Bitou] into a morass of habitual corruption over ten years" the DA achieved that in less than six months into office.
I have mentioned specific tender fraud engineered at the highest level of the DA. I challenge Christianson to do same with regard to the ANC.
Calling the then protection unit "thuggish" ANC private army or "ANC goons" will not make any difference to the fact that the Head of that Unit won a case against the DA in the High Court. We are aware that the DA has declared war against individuals in that unit. The DA is doing their best to fight and win Brummer's ego-battles.
There are many DA aligned officials who worked in the municipality during the ANC era. All ANC councilors didn't just insist that those officials be given space like everybody else to work in the municipality, but went on to sanction that their contracts be renewed. Their argument was that they are not in council to purge anybody but to deliver services and they believed that those officials would contribute to service delivery like all others. And we are proud of that leadership shown by the ANC in Bitou.
The DA is on record as having challenged other NPA prosecurial decisions. They had that right to challenge the NPA decision on the former Mayor and Municipal Manager. But there's good reason why the DA didn't follow that route. It's because their supposed star witness Brummer was exposed during the former municipal manager's disciplinary hearing.
Christianson should know that withholding the truth is worse than lying. The chairperson of the hearing never said this about the charge sheet; Christianson is cleverly trying to twist his words. He stated that he could have found the former municipal manager guilty on other (minor) transgressions but that those transgressions were not in the charge sheet.
It is important to note that the charge sheet was drafted by the senior legal advisor of the SIU and that the prosecutor received instructions from the MEC to charge according to the charge sheet as drafted in the SIU's report. The DA was satisfied with the charge sheet.
After the hearing the DA released a press statement, questioning the finding of not guilty, describing the prosecutor as professional and well respected. The transcription of the hearing clearly shows Brummer conceding on all ten charges that if he knew all the facts at the time, he never would have gone to the media and there would have been no necessity of a hearing.
All charges were as preferred by the DA. In order to avoid being seen as protecting corruption, the ANC councilors gave Brummer carte blanche to meet with the prosecutor and explain each and every allegation and explain which laws were transgressed.
All the witnesses from the SUI and the DA were torn apart under cross-examination by Seitisho's attorney. Under cross examination, Brummer admitted that his complaints was politically motivated and stated that it was "the icing on the cake of their election campaign"
He also conceded that, "the DA overreacted when it announced the fraud and maladministration in the media" He blamed this on Seitisho's failure to give him information he claimed he first saw during the hearing. He said he was satisfied with the authenticity and correctness of the information. He couldn't have made those allegations if he had the information before.
I challenge the DA to produce full transcript of the judgment in that case, and if it proves me wrong then I will withdraw this and put an apology wherever this would have been published.
It would've helped Christianson if he wrote the "research" than do cut and paste because that method leads to some matters and facts being conflated, which in turn leads to absurdity and disclosures that were supposed to have been left in the DA's internal correspondence. Unwittingly, Christianson confirms what we had been saying all along, former Municipal Manager, Lonwabo Ngoqo, was suspended for political reasons.
We are told that Memory Booysen was provided with a bulletproof vest because of threats identified by the MEC for Public Safety. I put on record that there was never such an investigation and Booysen never received threatening messages as alleged. All cell phones are registered to a specific person in terms of the law. If there have been death threats to Booysen then a crime has been committed.
Let the record of such messages be retrieved, the senders be arrested and the public be told who those people are. Memory stated on Carte Blanche the following, and I quote: "I've always been the enemy... they've always regarded me as the enemy. And now all of a sudden I'm the enemy with executive powers. Now it is a different ball game for them and probably the best thing is to get rid of me."
The ratepayer is coughing up about R240 000-00 per month for body guards because the mayor made a ridiculous and unsubstantiated assumption. But this of course looks good for the DA since it makes the ANC look bad, so for them it's worth every penny. The irony hereof is off course that the DA removed his executive powers the moment he became the mayor.
On 14 April 2008, and at a public meeting, DA's Donald Grant complained that there were 13 vacancies in the municipality that were not filled. This matter was later reported in the newspapers as the DA was livid that administration was not filling every position that was vacant. The DA must tell when they became aware that the staff establishment was inflated.
Sipho Kroma's hotel accommodation was paid on instructions from Memory Booysen. On the other hand he had told Kroma that he would sort the account out because he had contacts from the hotel group as he worked there before joining the municipality. I know that Booysen claims that he was forced by then Mayor to pay the account. If his claims are true, he knew it was wrong to do so. Why did he do it?
In his infamous email to a Cape Town businessman, Peter Ahern, on June 2, 2006, Brummer partly wrote, "My feeling is that they (ANC councilors) are still going to be with us for a long time unless the people in the township can convince the ANC by means of civil unrest to remove them." He went further to write that he was in talks with those who led the subsequent violence in the township. In his report back to the DA leaders, Brummer explain how much time and funds were invested in the "Kwanokuthula Project" which was carried out under the banner of "QM".
It is interesting that Brummer and DA by extension decided to foment violence in the township not in the suburbs. This was the former apartheid covert operative at his best, divide through violence, and rule. So, yes it's true that "under ANC rule, there were numerous incidents of violence against political opponents", but the DA sponsored that violence. The violence only stopped when most influential senior members of the group changed their minds and disclosed what we already knew that the DA was funding the violence.
The former leaders of QM, who are now going to testify for the state, describes in detail how the "QM" operation was managed, and that they even went as far as to burn down their own members houses and then accuse the ANC thereof. Those members who lost their houses were later reimbursed.
A very well known estate agent in Plett, who up until recently claimed openly that he is the political advisor to Brummer, was the main funder of this project. Last year attorney Hardy Mills laid formal charges of sedition (a form of high treason) against them at Plett Police station and the docket is currently at the DPP's office for decision.
Soon thereafter the DA shamelessly accused him (Mills) of fueling the violence in Bossiesgif and Qolweni, and being somehow involved in the arson of the municipal buildings when in truth he successfully negotiated a cease fire with these two communities as well as the Kranshoek community.
If there was any substance in allegations against Seitisho, Mapitiza, Leluma and Peter Lobese why was the case permanently removed from the court roll, or was this another of those stories where the NPA protected the ANC-connected individuals? As the DA was an integral part of the charges against these people, why didn't the party challenge the failure by the NPA to proceed with the case?
Booysen must tell the truth. His disgruntlement with the ANC stemmed from the fact that he was not appointed the mayor, and nothing else. The ANC in Bitou, led by Mvimbi and Mapitiza had promised Booysen that he was going to be made the mayor. A different approached was advanced and after intensive discussions it prevailed. The only reason why he turned against the ANC is because of this disappointment that he would not become the mayor anymore. Booysen must tell the truth.
Mvimbi was warned weeks before his house was stoned with his children in it, but he didn't believe that such would happen. He also didn't believe that he would be physically attacked. The DA deliberately avoids mentioning that Mvimbi' was provided bodyguards only after he was physically attacked.
The reason they avoid saying this is because the DA, ably represented by Brummer, initiated the physical assault on Mvimbi. His injuries were attended to at the hospital and his car was wrecked after being stoned in full view of his family.
It is untrue that the security costs for 2007 were R4m, and we challenge the DA to submit proof to that effect. The DA is spending R240 000 per month on protection of Booysen despite there never been any threats on him or his family.
Mvimbi moved into the house not because it was safe or because it was a mayoral house per se. He moved in there because landlords in town regarded him as a security risk. Like any other municipal official living in a municipal owned house, Mvimbi paid for staying in the house. It was never provided free of charge and never meant for the mayors. There was no security features added to the house. No improved fencing. It was like any other house in that street or occupied by municipal official somewhere else in town.
We've practiced biblical Job's patience since 2005 when the DA started serializing lies about ANC corruption. Honestly this story about corrupt ANC is a tired rhetoric from bankrupt minded DA. Now they claim that a "grant of nearly R30m" had been "lost". Why not move quickly to lay charges against those entrusted with it?
The "research" was completed in September 2011. In November 2011 the AG delivered management letter, which was pointing towards another unqualified audit. The DA deployees at the meeting, tried to push for a qualification in order to have been vindicated. But their devious plot failed the test of internationally acceptable auditing tests. They even put on some dubious investigations that have to date not yielded anything resembling corruption or maladministration.
The AG audited books using the very same documents that the DA is throwing around here. The AG is biased towards clean governance; not in favour of any political party. That makes the difference.
Christianson writes; "Bitou has received an unqualified audit from the Auditor-General for the last three years. However, as the AG's final report is a tick-box exercise, it is always worth reading the entire document to see what nuance appears. In this case it is significant." (For the record, another unqualified report was received since the so-called "research".)
This is typical DA. The DA-led provincial government parades its senior MECs every year to tell the country that they received unqualified audits and uses that to blow a trumpet about their "good governance" record. When the ANC led municipality gets the same results, from the same process, using the same tools, and then auditing system is slated. This is hypocrisy and so-called experts are quiet as graves.
The DA cowboys never learn. They always shoot from the hip. They should have just asked for an explanation on the so-called "drinking binge" on ratepayer's account and they would have received proof that the money came from the officials' pockets. But again, they might know the truth and decided to hide that from public to win cheap political points.
The municipality had a 97% success rate in their litigation matters before June 2011, after that it went down to 0%.
At least eight investigation teams have been brought to Bitou in the past ten months, and we are still waiting for proof of corruption claimed in this and other press releases by the DA. These teams literally combed the desert (including all the invoices of the previous municipal attorney) in their quest to find corruption and/or mall administration. As soon as the one team gives up, they appoint another team.
I repeat what I said in the past; the DA must go lay criminal charges against any of the ANC officials and councilors who allegedly stole from the public purse. If they don't lay charges, they must just shut their big mouths up and provide services to the people. Even George W Bush eventually admitted that there never were any weapons of mass destruction but the DA is way too proud to admit same. But just like Bush, the DA won the war thanks to these false claims. Now Bush has oil and the DA has the municipal coffers so both in truth do not give a hoot.
In their letter to Lefatshe Technologies, the DA said they wanted to terminate the contract because the municipality had no money. Nowhere in the letter is non-performance mentioned. If there was non-performance, why didn't they tell Lefatshe Technologies so?
The DA is starting to panic because the people's eyes are slowly starting to open. The public is starting to realize that they are being deceived. With the help of organizations like the Justice and Quality Front things are unraveling. Not a million more articles from the Christiansons of the world will be able to prevent this.
Nice try Christianson but no cigar!
Kenny Leluma was political advisor to the former ANC executive mayor of Bitou
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