HERMANUS – This is what former American President Bill Clinton famously told reporters when confronted by allegations that he was having an affair with staff member, Monica Lewinsky. We all know how that turned out. It was also one of the first things that came to mind when I read the puff piece about our Mayor and the recent controversy around municipal tenders in one of the local good news papers this week.
I’m not going to waste time trying to respond to the Mayor’s attempts at portraying themselves as victims. Suffice to say that as public representatives working with the money of ratepayers they are, by law, bound to a higher level of public scrutiny than are other members of the public. Instead let me ask you a question: If you are the Mayor and your protégé comes to you with the news that his business partners want to tender for the lease of municipal land, what would you do? I know what I would do. At the very first meeting on the said tenders, I would start by saying, listen guys, we have an issue here. My protégé’s business partners want to tender and that could cause major ructions. So, let’s play this by the book and be open and transparent about it. Obviously, this conversation never took place, because when we enquired around the middle of June, at least two senior DA councillors, including the Speaker, knew nothing about Mr Lerm’s business links with Point Caravan (who has now been awarded both the tenders for De Mond and the Yacht Club). For all we know the Mayor herself didn’t know about it. Maybe that’s why it took her almost a week to respond to our initial article?
The implications of awarding a tender to the business partners of a councillor go way beyond just the initial declaration of interest. Once the tender has been awarded, the next question arrives. Will the said councillor benefit in any way from the project that flows from the tender. Will he be one of the building contractors? Will he or his family or businesses in any way profit from the venture? It starts a never-ending cycle of question marks. Which is exactly why it should be avoided. The Mayor knows that, Mr Lerm knows that and the Municipal Manager knows that.
I see the Mayor mentions nothing about public participation. It is a process prescribed by law. It is not negotiable and our Municipal Manager, Dean O’Neill, who earns a salary equal to that of a cabinet minister, knows that. Her saying that there will be a public participation process once they receive the site development plans from Point Caravan simply doesn’t cut it. The Mayor is quoted as saying the only thing they know at this stage is that Point Caravan plans “some sort of holiday resort” at De Mond. This could mean anything, from a five-star hotel catering for the rich only (on public land and for a lease period of 45-years??) to a day camp with braai facilities and a supertube. If I as a resident in Voelklip don’t like the idea of a supertube and raise an objection to it during the planned after-the-fact public participation process, do you think the developers will change their plans? I don’t think so. That’s why there is a public participation process in the first place. To set the parameters. It’s public land and the public has a right to be involved in the decisions about how that land is used. But let the courts decide on that.
Then on another point. Somebody is lying. I don’t know who, but someone is definitely lying. That’s the problem with lies, you have to keep on lying to cover the original lie. In the article published this week it is implied that the lease has been drawn up and still has to be signed. Well, I am confused, because here is part of an email sent by the administration to one of the tenants at Kleinrivier:
Point Caravan is clearly also under the impression that the lease is already in effect as they have already told the tenants that their rent is going up. Why is this important? Because, if this is the case it means that the administration has deviated from the process. They have gone ahead and signed a lease without the agreement having been approved by council.
Something else I would like to address is the Rabie Administration’s handling of the existing tenants at both the De Mond and Yacht Club sites. The Yacht Club had been there for 40 or 50 years. They were unceremoniously kicked off the property. Is this how you treat people? In the case of the Kleinrivier tenants, they have been there for 30 years. OK, they had a sweet deal, but they’ve also loyally paid their bills for thirty years. They’ve spent a lot of money buying and maintaining their properties. Surely, they deserve some consideration? The Mayor says the issue will be dealt with later. Again, surely the fair and reasonable thing to have done would have been to make some sort of arrangement with the existing tenants before you basically sold the land from out under them. redakteur@overstrandherald.co.za
What a marvellous article and sense of humour, well done!
Its time for WHALECOASTNEWS to move closer, to inform the public of the shenanigans enacted with impunity by the administration, often in cahoots with the elected officials.
Perhaps we could convince the council as such, to livestream sessions open to the public – i daresay the public ( of course the majority are simply apathetic ) would be shocked at the complete lack of debate, discussion as well as the level of competence of persons who are in effect, the members of the board of “Overstrand Inc” especially when expertise, willingness and experience exists in abundance within the private sector – elsewhere, this pool of talent is welcomed, by the Democratic Alliance – locally, however, it is the AUTOCRATIC ALLIANCE that is all knowing!
More of the same please WHALECOASTNEWS!
lekker by die see…
I must say it is very disturbing to hear that our mayor, munisipal manager and council do not seem to have followed the correct procedures and public participation with regard to awarding tenders. There must be an external audit done ASAP to expose any wrongdoing with severe penalties !
Wouldn’t this be an excellent topic for investigation by ‘Carte Blanche’ ? Tenants and ratepayers deserve truth and accountability from elected officials in the Municipal Management Team.
Agree 100% ….Am sure DEVI from the DEVI show would also help with investigating all the wrong doings….Well written aricle….Keep on bringing out the truth Whale Coast News
I thought the tender called for development plans to be submitted with the tenders . Now, it seems they are awaiting these plans . Surely, you can not change anything after the tender was awarded.
Thank you for an interesting, valuable and unsettling report. Somehow, something must be done. If the decisions were taken without consultation, they should surely be null and void? And surely, action must be taken or there will be more and more illegalities going unnoticed. We are ratepayers, and we want to know; we also are entitled to know, and this has been denied us. It is not good enough.
Well done to the Editor and Team. This is what we need. The truth! The people were kicked off the yacht club grounds in fisherhaven. Untimely for the caretaker and his wife and now others need to secure the property from vandalism and illigal occupation. When will people learn to take responsibility for their actions?
It gets worse. The municipality ignored requests for the groundman to return. Or for guards to be place on site. When warned about the opportunity for vandalism, they indicated to members of the Fisherhaven and yacht club community that the new tenant is in occupation when that was not the case. Now that the site has been extensively vandalised while under municipal control, the new tenant seems to have taken possession. While the municipality indicates they will institute an insurance claim. Realistically it is not to be expected that the new tenant should pay any rent until the site is restored to the state it was in when the tender was made. While the municipality claim that there is no time limit to when the site needs to become available for use by the public. All very convenient for a new tenant who is on a 25 year lease and who must apply for various zoning restrictions to be lifted.
indeed frans – i hope your sentiment and this comment is widely shared….