On Friday, 2 February 2024, the Bitou municipal council will face motions of no confidence in its mayor, deputy mayor and council whip. This means the Democratic Alliance (DA) coalition could be removed from leadership in favour of an ANC-led coalition. 

Ahead of the council sitting, Patriotic Alliance (PA) leader Gayton McKenzie has proclaimed the current council Speaker would become mayor. The Speaker – Ward 4 councillor Claude Terblanche from the Plett Democratic Congress (PDC) – has broken the party’s coalition agreement with the DA and another local party, the Active United Front (AUF). 

Friday will see a special sitting of the council to hear the motions of no confidence in Mayor Dave Swart (DA), Deputy Mayor Deputy Mayor Mavis Busakwe (AUF) and Whip Annelise Olivier (DA). 

The DA/PDC/AUF coalition has been in place since the 2021 municipal elections. The DA currently holds five seats in the 13-seat council, while the other two hold one seat each.

In a statement to Daily Maverick on Thursday evening, the PDC executive committee blamed its coalition partners, saying that while there had been differences between the parties, these used to be resolved amicably.

“This rhetoric changed dramatically in the last few months,” it said.

“It [became] increasingly apparent that the coalition was no longer one of unity but a coalition led by the DA, and the AUF focused on their priorities and self-interest. Our representative, Cllr Claude Terblanche, found himself bullied by the principle of ‘majority rules’ and silenced by reference to the coalition agreement, which prevented him [from] voting against [it] in Council by what was decided by the joint caucus,” the statement continued. 

One of the issues raised by the PDC was the creation of another directorate in the already cash-strapped municipality, which the PDC claimed would cost R14-million in salary payments. Other issues included writing off debt, which the PDC was against, and strained relations between Terblanche and senior leadership in the municipality. 

If the motions of no confidence are successful, it will pave the way for opposition parties to govern the coastal Western Cape municipality. The ANC holds four seats, while the PA and Ikhwezi Political Movement hold one seat each in the 13-seat council.

According to the Knysna-Plett Herald, the motions of no confidence were submitted by ANC councillor Sandiso Gcabayi. 

“In December 2023, we reached out to our so-called coalition partners in an attempt to resolve these festering issues. However, the AUF refused to meet with us, and the DA again made it clear that they will side with the AUF and continue to ignore and undermine the PDC,” the PDC said.

The decision to withdraw from the coalition was not taken lightly, the party said. “We made an effort to reach out but our olive branch was trembled upon.”

Gayton McKenzie’s involvement

Last week, before news broke of the motions of no confidence, PA president Gayton McKenzie was in the area. On the evening of 25 January, McKenzie announced on Facebook: “We are removing the DA mayor there in Bitou.”

He went on to claim that Terblanche would be the municipality’s new mayor. 

DA Bitou constituency head MP Cathy Labuschagne said it came as “no surprise” that McKenzie arrived in the municipality shortly before the motion of no confidence. 

“It is exceptionally disappointing that opposition votes are being handed back to the ANC in this way. This has been a pattern with many small coalition partners countrywide, who have abandoned the promises and commitment to good governance in pursuit of their own self-serving interests,” Labuschagne said. 

“Since the multi-party coalition came into government in November 2021, incredible progress has been made in the municipality, strengthening Plettenberg Bay’s claim as the tourism mecca of the Garden Route,” Labuschagne said. 

“From rebuilding the municipality from the previous ANC-led corrupt coalition and placing the municipality’s finances in a good state, one can clearly see the ANC and PA are licking their lips, eagerly waiting to get their hands on municipal resources,” she said.

‘Too disastrous to contemplate’ – ratepayers

In a Facebook post to residents, Plett Ratepayers’ Association chairperson Steve Pattinson said: “The prospects of the ANC governing Plett again are too disastrous to contemplate. One only needs to reflect on the past damage inflicted by the ANC on our town and its resources to understand what will happen. One thing is for certain, these political dynamics are not driven by community interests.” 

He added that if anyone thought this was “mere fear mongering, we only have to look at Knysna, to see in technicolour what ANC/PA control looks like”, referring to the ongoing administrative and governance crisis in the neighbouring Knysna municipality. 

“The Bitou community deserves to hear from Terblanche his justification for shifting the balance of power to an ANC-led coalition,” Pattinson said. 

History of coalition chaos 

This is not Bitou’s first rodeo with unstable political leadership. Between 2016 and 2021, Bitou’s 13-seat council included six seats for the DA, six for the ANC and one seat for the AUF. In 2021, GroundUp reported how the council had been brought to a standstill by the constant flip-flopping of the AUF’s Peter Lobese, who was the council kingmaker. 

Read more in Daily Maverick: Plettenberg Bay flounders without functioning council ahead of November 1 polls 

Following the 2021 local elections, the council was once again hung, but soon the DA would join a coalition with the AUF and PDC, a coalition which had been stable up until this motion of no confidence.

“We assure the residents of Bitou that not any of the good work done by this council as a collective be undone. As PDC we are committed to clean governance;this is evident from our track record these past two years. We can and will continue to improve on what this Council as a collective has achieved since 18 November 2021,” the PDC executive committee said. 

In the 2021/2022 financial year, Bitou received an unqualified-with-findings audit outcome from the Auditor-General’s office. It received the same audit outcome in the 2020/2021 financial year. DM