We have removed our post due to a demand from the legal representatives of Grey Elephant Investments Pty (Ltd) and Mr. Neil Lurie, who alleged that our post stated, or inferred, that their clients were party to a corrupt relationship with Knysna municipality and/or its officials; and that they have acted unlawfully or unethically in the settlement of their rates dispute; and/or in concluding a lease agreement with the Knysna Municipality.
Whereas we deny that our post stated, or was intended to be understood by the reasonable reader, as inferring a corrupt relationship between Knysna Municipality and/or its officials and Grey Elephant and/or Neil Lurie and that they had acted unlawfully or unethically in the settlement of their rates dispute, and/or in concluding a lease agreement with the Knysna Municipality, we apologise for any harm caused in the event that our post was misunderstood by any readers as implying the abovementioned.
All agricultural properties effectively categorised as residential.
On the 30th of May 2024 councillors attended a budget workshop in which we were taken through the main budget tables. All proposed changes to the advertised Draft Budget were discussed with councillors, who also provided their input.
Thereafter the budget was twice postponed until it served before council on the 13th of June 2024. The Mayor presented the budget, without drawing the attention of councillors to significant changes that had been made behind closed doors.
One of these changes is patently unlawful and impacts all agricultural properties: “Agriculture taken back to residential base rate for all. From 1 July applications MUST be submitted”
Despite the fact that section 8(d) of the Municipal Property Rates Act, provides that each municipality must have “agricultural properties” as part of its rates categorisation, with effect from 30 June 2024, Knysna effectively has no properties categorised as “agricultural” for rates purposes. Each and every owner of an agricultural property will have to apply again for the property to be categorised as “agricultural”.
This is illegal, as the categorisation of each property is included in the valuation roll, and the only lawful way to change the categorisation is by including the property in the supplementary valuation roll. This may only be done if the category has changed. Each owner has to be informed and has to have an opportunity to object. The municipal valuer makes the final decision.
Council today disregarded the valuation roll and unlawfully usurped the function of the municipal valuer.
The budget therefore is compromised, as the municipality relies on the additional R6.6 million it anticipates to receive from the unlawful categorisation of all agricultural properties as “residential”. Owners of agricultural properties will no doubt apply to be re-categorised as “agricultural”, and other than an administrative nightmare, this will result in a significant budget shortfall.
The budget includes the paltry sum of R100 000 for Knysna Animal Welfare, an absolute disgrace, considering that this organisation has not received a cent from the municipality since 2020.
The ANC, EFF, PA and PBI also showed a complete disregard for the environment, by increasing the rates on Private Open Space properties by 100%.
We trust that Provincial and National Treasury will reject the budget and ensure that the municipality follows lawful processes when effecting changes to the valuation roll.
On the 22nd of February 2023 we submitted to the Municipal Manager several complaints of serious misconduct and financial misconduct against the Acting CFO, Ms. Sotshede and the Acting Director of Corporate Services, Mr. Luvuyo Loliwe. The appointments of Sotshede and Loliwe are the subject of MEC Bredell’s pending court application to have them set aside.
The complaints must be tabled before council within seven days of receipt thereof, or at the next sitting of council. In other words, the Municipal Manager has a legal obligation to table the complaints before council tomorrow, which is both within seven days from the date on which the complaints were submitted, and the next sitting of council.
Complaints have been submitted against both Sotshede and Loliwe in connection with their alleged role in the “Bug-Gate” contract, where grant funding intended for Knysna Animal Welfare Society was shamefully diverted to an unqualified contractor for, inter alia, the de-bugging of municipal offices and phones.
An investigation into Loliwe’s role in the illegal appointment of the political support staff and his role in defending the ensuing court case to set aside those appointments, as well as the urgent interdict application to stop payment of their salaries, has also been requested. The urgent interdict set the municipality back some R450 000 in legal costs, and resulted in a finding by Justice Henney that Loliwe, Deputy Mayor Marbi, Mayor Aubrey Tsengwa and others had lied to the court, intending to commit a “fraud on the court”. Henney found that their conduct was flagrant, shameless, reckless and calculating, that they had blatantly tried to mislead the court, and that they had frustrated all attempts to regularise the illegal appointments or have them set aside.
An investigation into the methods allegedly used to pay the support staff has been requested against both Loliwe and Sotshede and/or any other officials who may have been involved.
Sotshede prepared an unfunded and non-compliant roll-over adjustment budget in August 2022 and advised council that it was compliant, resulting in the approval of an unlawful adjustment budget. The non-compliant budget has serious implications for the municipality and we have asked for an investigation into her conduct.
We have received various complaints about, and have taken note of, Sotshede’s regular absence from work and have therefore called for an investigation into the reasons for her absence, and whether she had received the requisite approval.
During the week of the 14th of February 2023 Loliwe, without any authority from council, allegedly instructed the housing directorate to immediately move into the Knysna Tourism Offices on Main Street. This was done without any consultation of councillors or stakeholders. We have also called for an investigation into his conduct and/or the conduct of any other municipal official in connection with the move.
We have not yet received notification that the matter will serve before council tomorrow, but we will report after the council meeting on whether the matter was on the agenda, and whether council has authorised an investigation.
In the last few weeks, a concerted smear campaign has been launched via Whatsapp against Susan Campbell, KIM and more recently, the DA. Campbell has inter alia been falsely accused of racism and nepotism. These messages have been distributed by Marius (Marlow) Leen, the Mayor and his Deputy’s sidekick , and were clearly in response to our posts relating to the continuous unlawful conduct of the ruling coalition + EFF.
Initially we did not want to dignify the utter trash with a response, but last week on Friday, another malicious message did the rounds, this time involving KIM, the DA and an unnamed ANC councillor.
The DA was falsely accused of trying to pay an ANC councillor a huge sum of money to resign. KIM in turn was said to be using an unnamed senior official to “persuade” the ANC councillor to resign.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
This is what really happened:
On Friday the 17th of February 2022, Mark Willemse was approached at the municipality by Neville Korkee, who proposed to him that an ANC councillor, whose name he mentioned, should be paid to resign and that a job should be created for the councilllor in the administration. Korkee said that he had many supporters who would vote in the ensuing by-election and suggested that KIM works with the DA. Mark made it clear that KIM would have nothing to do with such a scheme, whereafter Korkee approached Susan Campbell, with the same suggestion, which again was promptly rejected.
Korkee also encountered rejection from a DA councillor, who advised him that the DA does not operate in that way.
On Friday the 24th of February, the day that the latest message started doing the rounds, Mark and Susan encountered the ANC councillor outside the council chambers. He told them that Korkee had peddled the same scheme at his home the week before, and that he had told Korkee, in no uncertain terms, that he had no intention of resigning and that he would have nothing to do with any such unlawful scheme.
It seems that the current leadership and their cohorts, who are responsible for the descent of the municipality into utter lawlessness and financial insecurity, have no answer to KIM shining a light on their constant illegal conduct and abuse of public money. Their only response is to bombard their constituents with messages littered with malicious falsehoods, defamation and deceit. In doing this they are insulting the intelligence of the very people they profess to represent.
An invitation is hereby extended to any owner of property or other person who so desires, to lodge an objection with the Municipal Manager in respect of any matter reflected in, or omitted from, the General Valuation Roll 2023-2028 by 28 February 2023
Attention is specifically drawn to the fact that in terms of Section 50(2) of the Act an objection must be in relation to a specific individual property and not against the General Valuation Roll as such. The form for the lodging of an objection is obtainable at the following addresses/venues: Knysna Customer Care Centre, Sedgefield Municipal office, Karatara office, Libraries in Rheenedal, Hornlee and Jood se Kamp.
Completed forms must be returned on or before 28 February 2023 at any of the following venues: Knysna Customer Care Centre, Sedgefield Municipal office, Karatara office, Libraries in Rheenedal, Hornlee and Jood se Kamp. Alternatively, the forms can be emailed to valuations@knysna.gov.za
Queries can be submitted to Léhanie Scholtz, PO Box 21, Knysna, 6570. Telephone: 044 – 302 6508/6453
We would just like to extend a huge thank you for all the support we received from those in the Greater Knysna area. We truly appreciate it and to those that entrusted us with your votes, an especially big thank you and we will do our best moving forward
“We, Epilepsy, are looking for 2nd hand goods that can be donated to the Epilepsy charity shop.. we have just moved into a new shop in Knysna. The old Red Cross shop. We are wanting to improve our shop decor and get better stock ready for the Christmas season.
We are specifically looking for mannequins for shop window clothing display… lamps, lamp shades and lights, anyone who can assist with buying paint to get shelves painted and shop wall painted.
In general the shop needs the following for stock to sell: home ware, kitchen ware, furniture & clothing.
Please let me know if you are prepared to help in any way!!!
Thanks so much…PS…we also need people to spread the word of what we need to their network so the drive becomes more effective!!!!
Deliveries can be made to the shop in Long street or to me at home or Autolink…
We are thrilled to announce that through the support of everyone who voted for KIM, our top two PR candidates Mark Willemse and Susan Campbell, will be sworn in as members of the Knysna Council. A heartfelt, thank you to everyone who has put their trust in us
The Proportional Representation “PR” system works to make your vote count:
Knysna has 21 elected Councillors, 11 Ward Councillors and 10 proportional representative (“PR”) Councillors nominated by their parties. In order to govern a party has to have 11 Councillors.
On November 1st you will receive three ballots:
• a Ward Councillor ballot
• a Party ballot to elect PR Councillors
• a Garden Route District Municipality ballot
The first ballot decides which candidate wins in each Ward. The second ballot supports the PR seats for the party. The first two ballots then go towards deciding the total number of seats any party will be allocated in the Knysna Council. A smaller party such as KIM may not win a Ward outright, but when the votes from every Ward are added up they may still get several PR councillors, irrespective of whether any wards are won.
No vote for KIM will be wasted. Each and every vote counts towards the allocation of PR seats in the Knysna Municipality.
The third ballot decides which parties represent us in the District Municipality. There are no wards and the seats on the district Council are allocated, based on the percentage of overall votes a party gets.
Major parties have failed us. Both of the major parties have had opportunities to govern over the last ten years. The DA actually won with a majority in 2011, but failed to deliver on their election promises. Therefore in 2016 the DA lost its majority and had to form a coalition with other parties until it handed the town to the ANC at the end of 2019
With enough votes KIM can hold the balance of powerSo how can Knysna be saved? After studying the results of recent by-elections it is clear that no party can win a governing majority of 11 Councillors. Either the DA or the ANC will need to form a coalition with other parties.
The same analysis projects that KIM will probably get two or three Council seats. KIM’s careful candidate selection process means that these Councillors will be a force to be reckoned with and not be pushed around by the bigger parties. They will be able to apply their minds and vote with their consciences on all issues, fulfilling a role as “gatekeepers” to ensure that corruption is rooted out and that every cent is directed towards service delivery.
If enough voters cast all three of their ballots for KIM we can start fixing Knysna, and have some influence at District Council level, where there is also corruption and Knysna has not benefitted as much as we can from District Municipal service delivery.
knysnaindependentmovement.co.za 