During a special council meeting on March 20, a motion of no confidence against DA Kouga executive mayor, Horatio Hendricks, was tabled by 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 would emanate from the motion.
Kouga speaker, Brenton Williams, said that after a thorough debate on the item of no confidence against Hendricks during the council meeting, no vote was taken because no-one made any proposals or recommendations for action.
“Council noted and acknowledged the motion of no confidence and there was no need to take a vote,” said Williams.
Zana said that he tabled the motion of no confidence for three main reasons.
Nepotism
Earlier this year Hendricks’ daughter, Nikita Hendricks, was appointed as an employee within the municipality, which Zana believes points to nepotism as the application and interview process was allegedly completed in an unfair manner.
According to Hendricks, he was not involved with the appointment of his daughter as an auxiliary coordinator at the municipality.
He said that during the interview process the panel consisted of three municipal employees. Once the interview process was complete, the panel decided to shortlist his daughter, and two additional candidates.
Hendricks said that one of the shortlisted candidates withdrew during the process, which resulted in two candidates partaking in a competency assessment – of which Nikita scored the highest.
He said all three panellists were in consensus to appoint Nikita.
“It must also be stated that neither the recruitment policy, nor the municipal staff regulations, forbids the appointment of family members; the only aspect which is clear is that there cannot be any conflict of interest in the recruitment process,” said Hendricks.
“The process was free, fair, open and transparent to all, and proof that I had no influence in the process at any stage.”
Interference with traffic department
Zana also said that the mayor allegedly visited the Kouga Traffic Department in Humansdorp in December last year, where he demanded that his daughter write her learner’s licence. She was allegedly also given additional time to complete the test.
Regarding allegations that he demanded his daughter write her learner’s licence, Hendricks said that after she failed her eye test at the traffic department she was assured that if she were to complete an eye test at an optometrist and return with the necessary documents before December 15, she would not lose her appointment.
Hendricks said that when she returned on December 13 with the documents from the optometrist indicating that she had passed her eye test, she was informed that she had lost her appointment and that she would need to return on February 16.
“They were very inappropriate with her; so much so that she left the traffic department in tears,” said Hendricks.
He said that a senior traffic official intervened to rectify the issue as she was treated unfairly.
Golden handshake
Zana further said the third issue was that after the five-year contract of the municipality’s director of corporate sales and digital sales, Krishen Moodley, ended in August last year, the same director applied for the job post, but there were allegedly material defects found in her qualifications.
Zana said that despite these material defects the mayor allegedly went on to negotiate a settlement without a council resolution, which he refers to as a “golden handshake”.
He said that the details of the settlement were never shared with the council, as there was a confidentiality clause entered by Hendricks and the former director.
. Kouga Municipality’s spokesperson was approached for comment on this issue, but failed to respond at the time of going to print.
“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 that 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.
Full confidence in Hendricks
Kouga deputy mayor, Hattingh Bornman, said that they have full confidence in Hendricks 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 that 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 that 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 that they therefore see matters raised by the motion as baseless and without any corroborating evidence, and just a desperate attempt to destabilise good governance in Kouga.
“We note the motion, but confirm that we as the DA have full confidence in Hendricks and will not be distracted from delivering the best services to all residents in Kouga,” said Bornman.
- For updates on the outcome of the council meeting visit the Kouga Express Facebook page.
