Bitou still deadlocked
The Bitou Municipal Council remains at a deadlock pending the outcome of instituted court action. On June 20, the COPE deputy mayor, Adam Van Rhyner, and the six ANC councillors submitted a request to convene a special Council meeting in which they wished to pass a vote of no confidence in the mayor, deputy mayor and speaker.
Following various political theatrics the speaker, Annalise Olivier made an urgent high court application to prevent the seven councillors from convening said meeting. The seven submitted a counter-application and Judge Patric Gamble postponed the hearing until July 29. According to Bitou Municipality’s legal representative, Lizelle Harker the postponement was due to procedural irregularities on the part of the counter-applicants.
COPE has filed disciplinary charges against Van Rhyner. His disciplinary hearing was due to commence on Wednesday, July 16. Van Rhyner is charged with breach of party agreement and decisions for his actions in alligning himself with the ANC and thereby causing “a strain in the coalition arrangement between COPE and the DA in the municipality of Bitou”. He is also charged with in-subordination and contempt to party structures.
On June 30, the Bitou municipal manager, Allan Paulse, notified the IEC of a vacancy in the Bitou Municipal Council in terms of Section 18 (1)(b) of the Local Government: Municipal Structures Act 117 of 1998, following receipt of a letter notifying him of Van Rhyner’s expulsion from COPE.
On July 9, Van Rhyner issued a press statement in which he said his decision to support the ANC in their efforts to replace the executive councillors had been motivated by various instances of alleged mal-administration, tender irregularities and illegal tax increases committed by the municipality since 2011. “My decisions recently are in line with the direction COPE is heading in and that is that we will not be bound by either the DA or the ANC. In order to justify our existence as an individual, progressive political party that thinks for itself, I will be following my constituency’s instructions in consultation with the supporters of COPE and the party’s leadership,” said Van Rhyner.
According to Harker, Van Rhyner brought an urgent interdictory application attempting to restrain the IEC from filling the vacancy declared by the municipal manager on July 10. Judge Monde Samela dismissed Van Rhyner’s application and awarded costs in favour of the Bitou speaker and other respondents because the relief sought is the same relief sought in the counter-application filed in response to the speaker’s application and as such the matter is lis pendence (before court already), according to Harker.
Van Rhyner’s disciplinary hearing with COPE is set to continue until Friday, July 18. He is being represented by Hardy Mills. The outcome of this hearing will reveal Van Rhyner’s true position within COPE.
ARTICLE: CANDICE LUDICK, KNYSNA-PLETT HERALD JOURNALIST
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Source: Knysna-Plett Herald