The Democratic Alliance in the Western Cape has been alerted to irregular and illegal staffing appointments in the Matzikama municipality. Mayor David Jenner from the United Democrats (UD), has appointed his brother, former Independent Democrat, Sakkie Jenner, as the Strategic Manager of the municipality. Not only is this nepotism on behalf of the Mayor, but he is using money meant for service delivery in the process. The DA has reported this to Western Cape Minister of Local Governments, Anton Bredell for investigation.
Earlier this year, the DA lost control of the council when the EFF, ANC and UD formed a coalition agreement to remove DA Mayor and Speaker, Johan van der Hoven and Kallie Louw. Under the previous DA Mayor, Johan van der Hoven, the salary account of the municipality was capped at 40% to prevent the municipality from using critical resources for salaries instead of service delivery. It is now evident that the UD/ANC-led municipality has no intention of using tax payer’s money for the services they deserve but would rather loot the municipality’s financial accounts to fund their nepotistic appointments.
On the 23rd of August the DA caucus in Matzikama, sought permission to stay away from a council meeting where the UD and ANC were tabling a motion to change the municipalities’ organogram, so that they could continue to appoint people into non-essential positions. Without the DA caucus in attendance, the meeting did not have the required quorum and therefore could not continue. However, this did not stop die UD and ANC from proceeding to illegally appoint people to non-essential contract positions within the municipality.
“We are very concerned that the financial status of the municipality is under threat. It is a recipe we see with ANC governments across the country that when they are in power, money meant for the people is used for irregular appointments, bogus projects and corrupt activities. And this latest move by Mayor Jenner has the ANC written all over it. We believe that is why Mayor Jenner decided to break his coalition agreement with the DA, so that he could use government funds to employ his family” said the DA’s Richard Majola.
The DA will not allow the people of Matzikama suffer for the benefit of a connected few. We will bring this to the attention of the public, the provincial government and continue to hold the Mayor and his ANC counterparts accountable for their actions.