The letter lays complaints against the Federal Executive for protecting systemic corruption and eroding oversight in the province, demanding more autonomy for the provincial branch
This letter was submitted by the Western Cape Citizens for Public Accountability, has been edited in part by the Cape Independent Editor at request of the party in question.
Dear Mr. Simmers
This letter will soon go out with a petition.
We, as concerned citizens, recognise that the voting majority has chosen the DA to govern the Western Cape. But this vote of confidence was taken under the assumption that we were to expect a DA government committed to good governance – compliance, transparency, and accountability – and true to the principles of a capable state run by elected representatives compliant with the DA code of conduct.
To this end, we demand an independent Western Cape DA leadership. The Western Cape DA must be as independent from the DA Federal Council, as the provincial sphere itself is from the National executive - anything less would be comparable to the ANC’s blurring of institutional boundaries known as cadre deployment.
While the DA can be expected to remain the largest party for the foreseeable future, it will need to be completely refurbished, to depart from the abysmal standards we have grown used to in South Africa.
Current DA governance is declining, and adequate service delivery cannot long outlast the questionable governance practices we are seeing.
In sum, we call for the independence of the Western Cape Provincial Executive (PEC) to govern Western Cape caucuses without continued interference from the the Federal Executive.
To this end, we will now show examples of our grievances:
Memory Booysen
Recently, several grievances surrounding the governance of the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) emerged. We have possession of a comprehensive file compiled by EE Communications detailing extreme issues with disciplinary actions, from the punishing of whistleblower Johann Brummer to the decade-long protection of Memory Booysen from the consequences of multiple improper acts.
Whatever the precise facts surrounding Executive Mayor Memory Booysen, Municipal Manager Monde Stratu, and the Bitou and GRDM governments, their overall conduct has been clearly worthy of criminal investigation.
We are informed that the DA leadership was aware of, and refused to act on the following:
In addition to the notes on Memory Booysen above, on 24 January this year, attorneys JC van der Berg submitted a 330-page complaint of maladministration relating to the Kleinkrantz development in Wilderness, George, to all the GRDM whips, and copied the DA Provincial Ministers of Local Government, and of Finance and Economic Opportunities.
On 5 March, the GRDM resolved that there is “no reasonable cause to believe that any act of financial misconduct… has been committed by the Municipal Manager, the Executive Manager: Planning & Economic Development, as well as the Manager: Legal Services.”
Nothing more than a line or two of dismissal in response to a 330-page complaint. No reaction or response from the honourable provincial ministers.
The council had gone further in preventing accountability, by dismissing the Chair of the Municipal Public Accounts Committee for raising questions in council (responsible for overseeing financial activities).
The MPAC Chair is traditionally held by an opposition member, in the vast majority of cases, and so the DA could justify their decision to the voters by pointing out that she was an ANC member.
But they have had no problem with Booysen, or indeed any of the civil servants embroiled in this ongoing scandal, having been previous appointees of the ANC themselves.
This is unacceptable.
Yet, alarmingly, Booysen – the executive mayor; accountable (along with several of his local colleagues) for all decisions and operational dynamics and governance outcomes – remains in such good standing with leadership that he is currently a shoo-in for the Western Cape Legislature.
Despite local protests, which saw him asked to provide reasons why he should not be removed from the list, Booysen survived the redflagging with consummate ease.
Drakenstein
Conrad Poole, the former Mayor of Drakenstein, was recently dismissed in a successful motion of no confidence, supported by no fewer than seven of his own caucus, for allegedly running a jobs-for-benefits scheme.
Yet the DA has chosen to promote him to the Legislature without any formal investigation into the allegations, which are renowned in the local community, alongside other more serious complaints, such as the overwhelming and unsustainable municipal debt, skyrocketing rates, neglect of public infrastructure, and the renewal of the dodgy Waste-to-Energy plant.
The Waste-to-Energy fiasco includes the crippling of the entire waste management system in preparation, to create the required fuel for the project, which has been delayed for years by residents who have fought tooth and nail to keep it from spewing toxic vapours over Wellington, after a crooked environmental impact report was torn apart by local experts.
Despite promises to scrap it, they went behind the community’s back to acquire a grant from the ANC-run national government.
The refusal to include Wellington in the municipal development plans, exclusion of locals from public committees, blocking people from the app-based service complaints system, and paying people to stalk social media to keep an eye on those who complain, are among a long list of grievances.
Yet again, the man responsible has been kicked up the party list to Provincial Parliament.
Swellendam
In Swellendam, the DA has systematically attempted attempted to dismantle oversight in municipal governance, in a municipality where service delivery issues led to massive riots in August last year.
During these riots, the DA parachuted in a Community Safety Manager who systematically excluded private security and neighbourhood watches from the riot response effort, and kept the public (meddlesome outsiders that we are) so much in the dark that residents did not even know where it was safe to drive during the public violence.
During the late evening of 9 December 2022, letters of cessation of membership were served on Swellendam Councillors Sonqwenqwe, Mangcu-Ootyiwe, and AM Pokwas (the competent and experienced Deputy Mayor), after they voted against party instructions.
This began with motion of no confidence against the Mayor Francois du Rand, which was quashed by Helen Zille, but differences between the now-expelled faction and the mayor’s office continued.
The FedEx wanted rid of the corporate services portfolio, which provides a legal check on the actions of the Municipal Manager.
But council votes first require a DA caucus meeting, and caucus rules allow National Federal Executive members to be brought in to the six-member local municipal caucus.
The caucus was tied, and Helen Zille parachuted in to break the tie. But in council, the three insisted on against the caucus decision. Consequently, they were expelled from the party.
This firing triggered the byelection which forced them into a coalition with the VF+.
To keep loyalty, the Mayor boosted salaries of all his councilors, and promoted a DA member to the MPAC Chair.
In the majority of cases, the MPAC Chair position is run by an opposition member, to avoid conflict of interest. Despite initial trust in this decision from the VF+ speaker, the DA appointee failed to engage in any significant oversight activities, following which the speaker asked council to select a new chairman from the opposition, which in Swellendam’s case is the ANC.
In response, the DA attacked their coalition partner on social media, and cried foul when he defended himself. The DA had already selected the selfsame ANC-member MPAC Chair under the previous council, but had all changed their minds now that the unpopular mayor needed loyal cadres to support him.
A seasoned DA MP with years-long intimate knowledge of the Swellendam environment, called the report informing the cessations “the biggest hatchet job I’ve ever seen in my life […] as dit die kwaliteit werk is wat die governance unit van die DA produseer, en op grond waarvan Fedex en die leierskap besluite moet neem oor governance, kan hulle maar die governance unit toemaak”.
Communication in our possession clearly indicates that Fedex forcibly intervened in the situation, and the PEC was forced into submission, even as the federal leader called for restraint. The communications and the report are withheld by the DA.
Other cases
In George, we are informed that George Executive Mayor Leon van Wyk is in office despite failing in each of an unprecedented three interview cycles in 2021, and despite the PEC finding him unacceptable.
Communication in our possession clearly indicates that FedEx intervened to force locals to accept his nomination. The current George political mayhem speaks clamantly to the error of this Fedex-driven appointment.
The 2022 promotion of Bongi Madikizela (known for his extravagant birthday parties and misrepresentation of his qualifications) to an advisory position under Premier Alan Winde, astounded many, including a bemused media, before a craftily drafted statement recused Madikizela only to have him contest the provincial leadership last November.
We also have the case of Malusi Booi, whose corrupt relationship with the 28 gang went entirely unremarked upon for four years, despite several complaints, both formal and public, by Fadiel Adams (of the National Coloured Congress) among others.
Only when the police raided his offices did the DA act to discipline him for the awarding of contracts to construction companies run by the gang, allegedly in exchange for briefcases full of cash.
The Johann Brummer matter
Last, but not least, we must deal with the party’s treatment of Johann Brummer has been in litigation with the DA since 2012, relating to actions taken against him, and resultant damages.
It begins with a 2011 email from DA Bitou municipal council speaker Johann Brummer alerting Helen Zille to the issue of Booysen’s physical abuse of his wife, which is a matter of public record. Brummer subsequently added other complaints, related to abuse of public finances, discussed above.
He had already alerted Charles Dreyer and Constituency Leader Donald Grant to no avail. Zille and the rest of the party chose not to respond to the situation, and kept the issue under wraps. Booysen was a leader of marches against GBV for the party in Bitou municipality, and as such, had become a reputational asset for the local DA.
Booysen bragged that he had spoken to “someone in National Treasury” and that this person had told him that “none of the charges will stick.”
Despite being made aware of this issue over 10 years ago, Bredell only communicated an intention to investigate on the 17th of March 2023, with a polite request for information around the gratuities.
In response to this and other attempts to hold his colleagues to account for criminal and corrupt activity, Brummer’s membership of the DA was terminated by illegitimate means, by alleging an unsubstantiated failure to pay membership fees. After seven years in the courts, Brummer was vindicated, after the DA spent over R3 million to destroy Brummer’s career and public standing.
After being removed from the party, Brummer set himself up as an independent candidate. He summarised the situation thus:
“The real reasons for my summary dismissal from the DA relate to irregularities within the DA structures in Plettenberg Bay and the Bitou Council on which I blew the whistle. I refused to turn a blind eye to them and refused to be part of the cover-up of actions which will potentially cost the people of Plett millions.”
Now, 13 years later, the corruption has become so extensive that covering is no longer possible.
And during all of this, not a single second of court time, or a single cent of the fortune in play, has yet been spent on hearing the actual merits of the case. The DA has prevented the latter matter from being heard on its merits by raising technicalities and appeals when the Courts decided against them.
The Western Cape High Court has found against the DA, as had the Supreme Court of Appeal, and the Constitutional Court. There are currently six cost orders against the DA with various taxing masters. By the current finalised taxation, the DA owes Brummer R490 000, excluding legal costs.
In May 2020 already, long before the 19 June 2023 CC judgment in Brummer’s favour, Zille said, in an email, “You will be interested to know that we are currently going to the Constitutional Court about the case of an ex-DA Councillor we fired from Bitou in 2012. The point is that when these things hit the courts, they carry on forever and cost a fortune”.
Is this not the DA who attacked Jacob Zuma for his infamous “Stalingrad” legal defence tactics?
In conclusion
An independent Cape will not tolerate such wanton waste and bumbling, toxic management by its government.
The pettiness, the ruthless treatment of whistleblowers, the incompetence, and the constant erosion of mechanisms of accountability indict the Federal Executive profoundly.
We call for a stronger DA government – a Western Cape DA government free from the DA’s federal executive, to run an independent Cape.
We call on you, the leader of the DA in the Western Cape, to act in the best interests of the people of the Western Cape; to govern caucuses by PEC authority, and to reject, however legally possible, the meddlesome interference of the DA Federal Executive.
Yours sincerely,
The Western Cape Citizens for Public Accountability
