As expected the DA has lost yet another Bitou-related court battle. I can bet my last penny that Memory Booysen's ill-conceived attempt to fire Brian Molefe was fathered by none other than Johan Brummer - the real bull in the china shop that is Bitou municipality. And as expected the DA doesn't see anything wrong in them losing the case with costs. After all, the bulk of the money of the town comes from the Plett Ratepayers Association which has publicly declared that they no longer play watchdog role as they are in alliance with the DA (see report).
And as always, Booysen keeps lying about his reasons for the wrong decisions he has been taking. There were two reasons for Booysen's attempt. First, Molefe gave evidence in the case of the former Municipal Manager, Lonwabo Ngoqo. The DA deployees in Bitou were not impressed by the evidence, and wanted to portray Molefe as a defender of Ngoqo at all costs. But the chairperson of the hearing praised Molefe and declared him an honest man who didn't try to defend Ngoqo, or paint him as the devil the DA has made him out to be.
In fact, the outcome of the case shows Molefe as the most rational and honest of all the witnesses. The DA brigade of deployees and politicians would have been happy if the chairperson had cast Molefe in a bad light.
The second, and the one that really pushed them to their decision, was Molefe's instructions that the Dimension Data contract be investigated. According to the DA, there is nothing wrong with the DA politicians meeting with the chairperson of Dimension Data at a restaurant and decide to award a contract worth R4.2m to his company. And to the DA there is nothing wrong if they, not the ANC or any other party, don't put public tenders. The DA want the people of Bitou and the country to believe that there was nothing wrong with that behaviour and nobody should investigate the contract.
But what is worrying about the DA is that they always preach clean governance. If there is nothing wrong with that contract, why do they try to block Molefe for doing his job? More importantly, why has neither the provincial or national leaders of DA call on the Public Protector to investigate the deal?
Under the ANC, the municipality received four consecutive unqualified audits in a five-year-term council. This achievement could largely be attributed to outstanding work of the audit committee under the leadership of Brian Molefe. We all knew that the committee would go through the report with a fine comb and that Molefe would demand explanations from the managers. We initially feared him, but later grew to be fond of him for ensuring that we deliver quality services while we maintained financial discipline.
Some of us who developed and managed policies of Bitou Municipality have greatest respect for Molefe and we would not feel uncomfortable to work with him as our financial disciplinarian for we know that he would guide us to perform well and respect public funds.
On the other hand it is really tiring that Booysen can't say anything better than alleging corruption and bankruptcy at the municipality. These allegations are just a figmentation of his and DA's mind. And it is also being disrespectful to the Auditor General who has declared that there was none such things.
Booysen's response to the judgment exposes yet another fault within the workings of the DA. He is reported as having said, "Perhaps [Molefe] had too much on his plate." If he genuinely believed so, he could have called Molefe and discussed his concerns with him and the two of them would have found a way to address those concerns. But no, in real DA-style, he shot without thinking.
But maybe I'm too ambitious; Booysen is just a conveyor belt of Brummer's thoughts. And it's precisely because of that weird way of running government that as matters stand, the DA has lost every court cases they were ever involved in since they took over last year. In less than ten months they have parted with no less than R4m in legal costs. This is not the end, many other cases are still coming. But that is no big deal; members Plett Ratepayers Association are rich and can afford it.
Kenny Leluma is a former political advisor to the ANC Executive Mayor of Bitou.
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