ANC REFUSAL TO HAND OVER OUDTSHOORN IS DIRECT THREAT TO SOUTH AFRICAN DEMOCRACY

By winning the by-election on 7 August 2013, the DA became the majority party in Oudtshoorn.

In a proper functioning democracy, the party in defeat, in this instance the ANC - NPP - ICOSA Alliance, would have made room for the majority party to take control.  However the ANC alliance then embarked on an array of legal action and illegal conduct to frustrate and delay the opportunity for the DA to take control.

These actions by the ANC, has now led to fruitless and wasteful expenditure of taxpayers' money, the same taxpayers who used their democratic right to elect the DA as the governing party in Oudtshoorn.

The DA will eventually, after all possibilities for the ANC to prevent it have been exhausted, take control of the council, after which all the mentioned expenditure as well as the general financial state of the council, will be subjected to a proper forensic audit.

This outcome will be shared with the broader public.  All those responsible for any wasteful expenditure will be brought to book.

The DA regards the ANC's constitutional contempt as very serious and with possible far reaching consequences to democracy in South Africa.  We therefore expect the ANC Secretary General, Gwede Mantashe, as well as President Zuma, as leader of the party, to express their opinion on the conduct and contempt shown by the ANC in Oudtshoorn as well as the inability of the ANC provincial leadership to deal with the Oudtshoorn matter.

Statement issued by Theuns Botha, DA Deputy Leader in the Western Cape, February 20 2014

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