During a special council meeting on March 20, a motion of no confidence against DA Kouga Executive Mayor, Horatio Hendricks (DA), was tabled by the ANC Chief Whip, Vuyani Zana under Rule 29 of the Standing Rules, and Orders for the Meetings of Council.
Despite the issue of no confidence being tabled, council could only note and acknowledge the item, and could not vote on the matter as it did not recommend that any action emanate from the motion.
Zana said he tabled the motion of no confidence due to three main reasons.
Earlier this year Hendricks’ daughter Nikita Hendricks was appointed as an employee within the municipality which he believes points to nepotism as the application and interview process was allegedly completed in an unfair manner.
In addition to this, Zana said the mayor allegedly visited the Kouga Traffic Department in Humansdorp in December last year where he demanded that his daughter write her learner’s license. She was allegedly also given additional time to complete the test.
He further said his third issue raised was that after the five-year contract of the municipality’s director of corporate sales and digital sales ended in August last year, the same director applied for the job post but there were allegedly material defects found in her qualifications. Despite these material defects the mayor allegedly went on to negotiate on a settlement without a council resolution.
Zana said the details of the settlement was never shared with the council as there was a confidential clause entered by the mayor and the former director.
“We do not want to change the democratic process of the election of the mayor, but we cannot be silent when what the mayor is doing is wrong,” said Zana.
He said he plans to resubmit his motion of no confidence at the next council meeting on March 30.
“We will resubmit the motion of no confidence until we get a vote,” said Zana.
Kouga Deputy Mayor, Hattingh Bornman, said they have full confidence in the mayor to lead the municipality.
“A year ago, under the leadership of Hendricks, the municipality was voted the best municipality in the Eastern Cape and the ninth best in South Africa – out of 205 local municipalities in the country,” said Bornman.
“What makes this even more remarkable is that it happened during the global COVID-19 pandemic, and the largest drought we have ever witnessed in Kouga.”
He said the DA therefore wished to reconfirm their support of a year ago at the inauguration, because under Hendricks’ leadership Kouga has kept growing and is currently one of the fastest growing local municipalities in the country – with more than R1 billion of building plans approved in the last year.
Bornman further said Kouga has become a destination of choice for major international events as seen in the recent successful SDC Championship at The Links in St Francis Bay which was driven by Hendricks’ vision of becoming the events capital of South Africa.
He said they therefore see matters raised by the motion as baseless and without a single corroborating evidence, and just a desperate attempt to destabilise good governance in Kouga.
“We note the motion but confirm that we as the DA has full confidence in Hendricks, and will not be distracted from delivering the best services to all residents in Kouga,” said Bornman.
