Barry Streek
The Democratic Alliance has put Cape Town’s controversial mayor, Peter Marais, on compulsory leave and suspended two DA councillors in the city for their role in the “streetgate” affair.
The councillors now face a criminal investigation for fraud, which stems from an inquiry by advocate Willem Heath into the saga. Heath has recommended disciplinary action against Marais and two senior officials Johan Smit, Marais’s spokesperson, and Ben Kieser, a legal adviser in the council.
The DA’s provincial leader, Premier Gerald Morkel, announced the decision on Thursday . He also said he had approached former judge Edwin King to look into the position of Marais and the two councillors in the DA.
The DA’s heavy action is the latest twist in the controversy that began when the Mail & Guardian first exposed in June how the council had been using fraudulent votes in support of the street renaming project.
The Heath inquiry described the M&G expos as “obviously sensational” but that “if this [M&G] report was not published, it is our perception that the investigation by advocate van der Westhuizen [a Cape lawyer initially tasked with probing the allegations] or this investigation would not have been called for”.
The DA called in Heath after receiving an affidavit last month from Victoria Johnson, a legal adviser in the city council, who gave a detailed account of the street renaming fraud.
Heath’s commission concluded that the errant officials had failed to act properly. It found Smit and Kieser guilty of maladministration and malpractice and said all the evidence of fraud should be referred to the police for investigation.
The report said Marais had stated an “untruth” to DA leader Tony Leon about the extent of support for the attempt to rename Adderley and Wale streets after former presidents Nelson Mandela and FW de Klerk.
Heath said Marais had “compromised the credibility and integrity of the municipality” by “distorting facts” and not acting “reliably”.
The report said Smit’s failure to correct misleading information given by Marais to the Cape Town Press Club about the extent of public support for the renaming were acts of maladministration and malpractice. The report added there “is evidence of maladministration or malpractice by the mayor”.
The commission found that two DA councillors, Una Pick and Bonita Jacobs, had committed fraud, as had a community worker, a Mrs S Majiet, and two party workers, Mrs H August and Mrs M Samuels. It recommended that these cases be referred to the police for investigation.
The report slammed Smit for his handling of the M&G’s initial expos, saying that instead of making an honest attempt to motivate for an investigation, he had instead decided “to make the serious allegation that the petitions were either stolen [ostensibly by the M&G] or had been fabricated by them. Instead, they [Smit and his colleagues] were only interested in finding the culprit who had leaked the information to the media.”
Western Cape MEC for Local Government Pierre Uys said he would set up another inquiry to probe whether Marais and the councillors should be suspended or removed from office.