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The South African Communist Party Lizo Nkonki District (Southern Cape) welcomes the order of the High Court last Friday the 10th of September 2021 against both the WC MEC of Local government Anton Bredell and a leader of AUF Peter Lobese. 

The High Court order has set aside MEC Bredell's decision to overturn Mr. Lobese's suspension by Council in May 2021 and reaffirmed the decision to suspend Mr. Lobese with immediate effect.

This Court Application was brought by the Bitou Municipality in response to MEC Bredell's illegal overturning of Council resolution taken in May that resolved to suspend the AUF Councillor and erstwhile Executive Mayor of Bitou Municipality Mr. Peter Lobese for his alleged involvement in Maladministration, Money laundering and Many other serious allegations as contained in the section 106 report ordered by MEC Bredell a couple of years ago.

The MECs actions stems from the political arrangement the DA had entered into with Mr. Lobese(AUF) to take over Bitou Municipality from the ANC where Mr. Lobese would return as a speaker of Council. 

The SACP is particularly pleased by these developments since the High Court’s decision to reaffirm the Council resolution to suspend Mr. Lobese was what we as the Party agitated for and supported from the word go.

The DA's refusal to abide by the High Court order is criminal in nature and those responsible of such MUST be held personally liable for being in contempt of a Court order and must be criminally charged as well.

Further to that, the SACP have learnt that, as a result of the arrogance of both the AUF and the DA, the Municipality incurred great financial losses that could have been easily avoided had they listened to the advise of the Municipal Manager however, they regrettably chose to ignore such an advise.

The SACP calls on both the Speaker and the Municipal Manager to ensure the recuperation of all Municipal monies lost from all Councillors who took part in these illegal coup attempts by strictly applying Chapter 4 ss32(2) and Chapter 9 ss95 (f) of the Municipal Finance Management Act No 56 of 2003 in recouping these funds from these Councillors in their individual capacity.

The SACP will take all steps necessary to expose such crimes and unmask all those masquerading themselves as champions of clean Governance and fighting corruption whilst they themselves are involved in corruption and steels from the poor. 

This to the SACP is a clearly indicative of the nature of both the AUF and DA who would stop at nothing in clinging to power and even steeling power through any means possible, henceforth we urge and encourage all law abiding citizens of Bitou to reject both the AUF and the DA in the upcoming Local Government Elections on the 1st of November 2021 by overwhelmingly voting for the ANC that has proven to have the will of the people at heart in this Municipality. 

The MEC of Local Government in this Province, Anton Bredell is no stranger to such illegal practices since he has had his hands in deep into the affairs of this Municipality and was fully aware of what was happening but deliberately chose to remain silent and secretly supporting the illegal attempts to steel power through the back-door. 

The SACP calls on Bredelle to respect the autonomy of all Municipalities in this province and refrain from interfering in the affairs and administration of Municipalities in the Province particularly where the DA is NOT in Government. 

Issued by the South African Communist Party