Chad Louw, the country’s youngest mayor in history could find himself out of his post when the Patriotic Alliance (PA) in the Oudtshoorn Municipality tables a motion of no confidence in him, charging he had failed to provide political leadership.
PA member Suzane Jansen issued a letter to municipal manager Walter Hendricks last week requesting the motion to be tabled at the next council meeting.
Louw was appointed mayor after the November 2021 local government elections, at the age of 24, making him the youngest mayor in the country.
Failure to provide political leadership in service delivery and failure to report attempted fraud of R3 million to council were among reasons cited as motivation for the motion.
Louw on Sunday said they would pursue the matter. PA national executive committee (NEC) member Sydney James said instead of taking responsibility for his “rogueness”, Louw was putting the blame on the PA.
“The mayor stopped a legitimate process of choosing the new municipal manager and when approached for reasons he decided to ghost the coalition with his provincial head.
“The provincial head actually left the coalition chat with no explanation. I personally called them to come back to the table and explain why they wanted to stop the process.
“His claim of rogueness is trying to put the blame on the PA but does not take responsibility. It is imperative that the ANC takes the coalition agreement seriously. They talk about the coalition management committee (CMC) which they refused to attend to resolve the dispute. I think they are suffering from coalitionitis. They fear governing with other people,” James said.
ANC leader of the opposition in the province Cameron Dugmore said the allegations against Louw were “baseless”.
“We will never allow chaos and blackmail in a coalition. It is interesting that the PA now admits they used the motion simply as a tactic.
It has no substance. It must be about service delivery. We never left the CMC. We are waiting for the PA and advieskantoor (advice office) to withdraw their ‘foefie’( pretend) motion,” said Dugmore.
A source close to the municipality, however, said the motion may not go ahead. “The small parties want to be in control. But if the PA removes Chad, the ANC is going to remove Gayton in the Central Karoo. I think the PA will back off for now, they also have a mayor to lose,” said the source.
Forum for Anti-corruption and Service Delivery Oudtshoorn (FASO) founder Emile Cupido said they have “had enough of the current administration which is not there to serve the community but to serve their own agendas”.
“We have had enough of these political games that are being played. These actions by power-hungry politicians is what cripples the services that we as taxpayers are supposed to enjoy,” said Cupido.
Cape Times