In May 2017, Lobese left the ANC to form a new coalition with the DA, citing corruption in the ANC as his reason. This relationship, however, soured and about a year later the AUF was back with the ANC.
As political parties’ vying for council seats in the upcoming local government election intensifies, the party that comes out on top in Bitou will have its work cut out for it.
The municipality has been hard hit by a myriad of issues since the last elections. The current local government got off to a rocky start when the previous election results left Bitou with a hung council.
The DA won six seats with 49% of the votes, the ANC six seats with 41% and the AUF a single seat with 5%. The AUF formed a coalition with the ANC to govern Bitou, with AUF councillor Peter Lobese becoming the mayor at the time.
In May 2017, Lobese left the ANC to form a new coalition with the DA, citing corruption in the ANC as his reason. This relationship, however, soured and about a year later the AUF was back with the ANC.
Fast forward a year and Bitou was crippled by a series of protest actions over issues such as housing, schools, clinics and unemployment, that brought the town to a standstill. Starting in Qolweni, it later spread to other communities across Bitou.
This was followed by housing protests in New Horizons, where residents felt that they had become the area’s “forgotten” community as very little housing development was taking place in their community compared to other areas.
Over the next year, protests continued to paralyse the town, mostly due to the slow pace of housing development. Sporadic riots continued for three years until it hit boiling point earlier this year when allegations of bribery in connection with the Qolweni housing project surfaced.
These allegations came to light during a Western Cape High Court application involving the project. The court documents contained allegations that some of Bitou’s officials demanded large bribes from contractors to ensure their successful bidding. This led to violent protest action.
Eventually, the Western Cape Department of Human Settlements intervened and took over the implementation of the Qolweni housing project. On the political front, the situation was no less heated. The saga started with a unanimous vote of no confidence in Lobese in April this year.
In May, the DA and the AUF attempted to topple the ANC-run municipality by electing DA Caucus Leader Bill Nel as mayor. This election took place during a council meeting that, though attended only by the DA and the AUF, made up the majority of councillors and saw Lobese siding with the DA. The ANC then challenged the election in the Western Cape High Court.
On 3 June the court ordered that the meeting in which Nel had been elected as mayor was null and void and ordered that a new mayor be elected on 8 June. During the 8 June meeting, however, Speaker Euan Wildeman moved to suspend Lobese, referencing a criminal case involving alleged corruption, fraud and racketeering that had been opened against him.
This blocked Lobese from casting his vote for a new mayor, leading to a split vote between the DA candidate, Nel, and the ANC candidate, Sandiso Gcabayi, who is currently acting mayor of Bitou.
The DA then turned to the court to have Lobese’s suspension declared illegal. According to the code of conduct for councillors, a prescribed disciplinary process needs to be followed, after which the MEC for local government has to make the call to suspend a councillor or not.
This process had apparently not been followed. The court found it in their favour, but the ANC appealed the decision. On 10 September the court overturned the initial court decision that Lobese’s suspension was illegal. There has not been a quorate council meeting since.
These issues are over and above allegations of dodgy appointments and alleged fruitless and wasteful expenditure.
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As political parties’ vying for council seats in the upcoming local government election intensifies, the party that comes out on top in Bitou will have its work cut out for it.
