* This story was first published in the Cape Argus newspaper on Friday, August 26.
Cape Town - The Western Cape’s smallest municipality has become the scene of a political tussle between the ANC and the DA with regards to the proposed appointment of dismissed former George Municipality official Keith Jordaan to the role of Kannaland municipal manager.
Leader of the provincial opposition Cameron Dugmore (ANC) alleges that Infrastructure MEC and DA provincial leader Tertius Simmers has breached the Executive Members Act and the Executive Ethics Code with regards to the proposed appointment.
Dugmore is set to lodge a complaint with acting Public Protector advocate Kholeka Gcaleka. In the complaint, he claims that Simmers is directly involved in the appointment.
Dugmore said the appointment was an example of DA cadre deployment and it was unnecessary as there was already a competent acting municipal manager in place in Kannaland.
Earlier this month, Simmers touted Jordaan as a possible replacement for acting Kannaland municipal manager Ian Avontuur during a special Kannaland council meeting.
On Thursday, Dugmore said Simmers, in his capacity as DA provincial chairperson, issued an instruction to the role-players linked to the municipality to appoint someone he approved of to the post of municipal manager.
“This is not only grossly inappropriate for a functionary of a political party to interfere in the appointment process of a senior official at municipal level, but it is clearly against the Code of Ethics for Executive Members.”
Simmers said he had nothing to hide: “I welcome any investigation by the public protector. What I will not be doing is give oxygen to some desperate political witch-hunt.”
Simmers said the DA stood for the rule of law, and investigations into irregularities should be made when required. He added that there was a myriad investigations into ANC corruption and mismanagement.