‘Bouw-Spies must go’ to make a way for new Knysna Mayor
KNYSNA appears to be under new leadership following an unforeseen unanimous vote of no confidence in mayor Eleanor Bouw-Spies during a council meeting on June 6, when the DAs Bouw-Spies was replaced by Mark Willemse – a DA ward councillor and speaker of Eden District at the time.
In an unexpected turn of events, the ANC supported Willemse s nomination as mayor and also supported the nomination of COPE’s Elrick van Aswegen as his deputy.
Interestingly, according to those who attended said council meeting, Willemse along with councillor Peter Myers and speaker Georlene Wolmarans was the only DA representatives present at the time of voting.
Nonetheless, there was still a quorum in council and Willemse and his supporters allegedly believe that the decision to appoint him as mayor was fair and legal, particularly as the DAs constitution makes provision for members to vote according to their own conscience.
The DAs provincial leadership does not appear to share these sentiments and allegedly instructed Willemse to resign by 4 pm on June 8. This sparked an outcry on social media and culminated in an impromptu protest in support for Willemse s mayorship.
Around 150 people gathered outside the municipality chanting: “On your marks, get set, we are ready for Mark Willemse.”
The marchers proceeded through the taxi rank to Oaks on Main, where a DA caucus meeting was in progress. The police were called in and protestors were asked to vacate the premises of the restaurant where the meeting was being held.
They peacefully acquiesced and moved to a public space on the sidewalk across the road, where Willemse addressed the crowd, thanking them for their support and asking them to disperse so that the DA business would not suffer further disruption.
At the time of going to print, Willemse was still the elected mayor.
DA will ‘put the people of Knysna first’
According to a statement by da Western Cape provincial leader Bonginkosi Madikizela on June 9, it is a protocol that when members of a caucus lose confidence in their mayor, they notify the party to get concurrence to vote with their conscience.
“This is established practice… it can never be acceptable for any member to make such a decision without notifying the party on matters that have such huge ramifications as we’ve seen in Knysna,” said Madikizela, adding that provincial chair Anton Bredell joined him in addressing the caucus on the previous evening.
According to the statement, the first problem is that DA member Mark Willemse who was elected as mayor is also the Eden District speaker and by law cannot accept a second executive position.
“Secondly, voting with your conscience becomes questionable if you are the direct beneficiary, which is the case here,” he said.
The DA asked Willemse to resign as mayor for the two reasons stated above. He was given a deadline of 4 pm on Friday but requested an extension until 9 am on Saturday.
Madikizela concluded: “It also appears that Mr Willemse and Mr Myers have contravened section 3.5.1.7 of the DA constitution after their suspected mobilisation of the ANC to vote against the mayor.
“We are expecting Mr Willemse’s resignation; the deputy will then become acting mayor until a new
the mayor is elected.
“This process will be expedited to ensure that service delivery is not affected. We put the people of Knysna first.”
• By going to press, it had been announced that Willemse had resigned as speaker of Eden District
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