NEWS STATEMENT ON THE APPEARANCE OF THREE SENIOR DA MEMBERS IN COURT ON BRIBERY AND CORRUPTION CHARGES
On Monday 12 March 2012, three senior DA members, Johannes Koegelenberg, Henry McCombi and Patrick Murray, appeared in the George Magistrate's Court on charges of bribery and corruption. All were serving councillors when they tried to bride another councillor to vote for a DA councillor to be elected the mayor at the Eden District Council.
This development is interesting in that the saintly image that the DA has been portraying of itself is slowly and emphatically being unmasked.
The internal disciplinary hearing found all these DA members guilty. MEC for Local Government Anton Bredell, just like all previous cases, declined to relieve them of their duties because according to the DA culture any of their members found on the wrong side of the law are either framed by the ANC or subjected to a kangaroo court. Instead the corrupt members are rewarded to spite the process that adjudicated on the matters. A classic example is what happened in Bitou with their Johan Brummer.
The internal hearing panel was made of councillors from different parties and the findings against these people were unanimous. Interestingly, the current DA Mayor Wessie van der Westhuizen was amember of that committee.
As was required by law, this matter was referred to Bredell. He never acted and later claimed that he never received the report. He is on record as having gone to ANC-led councils to demand reports on matters that appeared in the media. This matter was in the media then but he never bothered to demand the report because his own party's members were involved.
This is the clean administration that the province and the country is being told the DA is committed to. Under normal circumstances, we would be going to the Premier for intervention, but experience has shown that Helen Zille is as complacent and as uninspiring as Bredell. Instead of acting to correct this wrong, Zille will be accusing the ANC of lying about her party members despite the findings of a multiparty committee that included the DA.
We are also mindful that should these people be found guilty, Zille would lead a media-based attack on the courts, just like she did with the court's findings against the DA in Bitou. And this is the same Zille who is accusing the ANC of wanting to curtail the independence of the courts.
Statement issued by Putco Mapitiza, ANC Regional Secretary, South Cape/Klein Karoo, March 13 2012
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