Council fracas in Bitou as governing ANC-led coalition collapses

The ANC-led coalition in Bitou Municipality in the Western Cape will govern for at least seven more days as a council meeting was postponed on Monday, 19 August following speaker Sandiso Gcabayi’s decision to seek a legal opinion over two motions of no confidence. 

The motions were to be served against the speaker and Mayor Claude Terblanche. Bitou, a coastal municipality comprising Plettenberg Bay and its surrounds, is governed by a coalition of the ANC, Plett Democratic Congress (PDC) and Ikhwezi Political Movement (IPM).

Gcabayi is an ANC councillor while Terblanche is a councillor for the PDC. 

DA approached by ANC and local parties 

Bitou was one of 16 hung councils in the Western Cape after the 2021 municipal elections. The Democratic Alliance (DA) has five seats, the ANC has four and four parties have one seat each. These parties are the Active United Front (AUF), PDC, Patriotic Alliance and the IPM. 

The DA – an opposition party in council – served the motions of no confidence. DA constituency head for Bitou, Cathy Labuschagne, said on 16 August that the party’s caucus leader, Bill Nel, was approached by the ANC caucus leader and the IPM councillor asking for the DA to form a coalition. 

Labuschagne said: “Councillor Nel followed the prescribed DA protocols and informed me of this development, whereafter I informed both our regional and federal structures… After detailed local DA caucus deliberations and discussions with DA leadership structures, the decision was made purely on strategic merit to form a coalition with the AUF and IPM parties.” 

Labuschagne said the decision was made clear as the local ANC did not follow up on their approach.

“After meetings between the local DA caucus, the AUF/IPM councillors and the DA Federal Chair, Helen Zille, a comprehensive coalition agreement that focuses on coalition stability and shared coalition strategic objectives as set out in their respective manifestos was drafted and signed by all parties,” she said. 

“The DA’s position in the deliberations was firmly anchored in concerns around the liquidity challenges in Bitou as well as concerns around the even-handed supply of quality services to all communities in equal measure.”

Chaotic council meeting 

In the council meeting on Monday in Plettenberg Bay, several councillors raised issues over the agenda and why other items were tabled alongside the motions of no confidence – with some councillors arguing about the inclusion of these items – including new administrative appointments. 

Within the council chamber, the mayor was also allowed to address the council.

Terblanche said: “Today, we can choose to react with vengeance, anger, revenge, payback and spitefulness. We can choose to react with witch-hunts, with aims to divide and conquer; we can choose to react as destroyers, we can choose self-interest, we can choose to be blindly loyal followers or we can choose to react as leaders.” 

He added: “We can choose forgiveness, humility, honour, truth and peace. We can choose to unite. We can choose the people of Plettenberg Bay, we can choose to not be game changers, but we can choose to change lives… we can choose to change communities.” 

Addressing some issues within the municipality, Terblanche, who has been mayor since February 2024, said he was proud that directors were being appointed from within the greater municipal area. He also claimed that administrative staff were “nervous” about any possible change in leadership.

“I plead that we as a collective can give staff the assurance that stability in the administration is a top priority for the 13 of us [councillors],” he said.

“Staff members are fearful of losing their jobs due to perceived political alliances.” 

After Terblanche finished speaking, councillors wanted to move the motion. However, speaker Gcabayi had wanted to go through other points of order on the agenda, including further appointments for the municipality. 

However, disruptions and pleas about getting to the motions of no confidence fell on deaf ears. Then it emerged there were two motions of no confidence. Eventually, a caucus break was requested.

Once the councillors came back from break, issues arose over having two different motions of no confidence. Eventually, Gcabayi announced the meeting was postponed as he needed a legal opinion on the next steps. 

He said a meeting would be held in seven days to discuss the motions of no confidence. 

Bitou’s history of coalition politics

After the 2021 municipal elections, a coalition of the DA, AUF and PDC was formed in Bitou.

However, in February 2024, the PDC left the coalition following claims of a lack of cooperation and a communications breakdown. 

A coalition of the ANC, PA, IPM and PDC was formed, with Terblanche taking the mayoral chain. 

Read more: DA ousted by ANC-majority coalition in Plettenberg Bay’s Bitou

Now, according to the statement by Labuschagne, the IPM has decided to work with the DA in a coalition. This explained why there was no motion of no confidence against Deputy Mayor Nokuzola Kolwapi, who holds the sole IPM seat in the council. 

Leadership changes aren’t new in Bitou. In the previous term, the 13-seat council included six seats for the DA, six for the ANC and one seat for the AUF.

By 2021, just before that year’s municipal elections, 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 at the time. 

For the last two years, the coastal municipality received an unqualified audit with findings from the Auditor-General’s office. 

Western Cape coalition changes 

Since the 2024 elections, there have been three council changes in the Western Cape. In June, the DA took control of the Beaufort West council after it won three by-elections in the municipality. 

Then, two weeks ago, the Oudtshoorn leadership changed after the Freedom Front Plus (FF Plus) removed itself from the governing DA-led coalition amid fights between the parties. It is now governed by a coalition of the ANC, FF Plus, PA and two regional parties.

Read more: New FF Plus Oudtshoorn mayor says tourism and basic service delivery top of agenda

Then, last week, the Good party withdrew from its governing coalition with the ANC and the PA in the Theewaterskloof Municipality in favour of a coalition between the DA, the Socialist Revolutionary Workers Party and themselves. 

Changes are also afoot in George, Langeberg and Cape Agulhas due to the breakdown of the DA-FF Plus relationship. While these have not seen widespread changes, FF Plus councillors were removed from their leadership roles in George and Langeberg. DM