Cape Town - Premier Alan Winde has said he will not discipline Local Government MEC Anton Bredell, as advised by the public protector, and has instead taken the report on Bredell's breach of executive ethics code on review.
Last October Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane found Winde and Bredell in breach of the Executive Ethics Act, and ordered Winde to act against Bredell within 60 days. This was the second time Bredell had been found in breach of the code.
Mkhwebane found that Winde acted unconstitutionally when he told the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee on Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs in June 2020 that a political agreement between Bredell and DA councillors in the Oudtshoorn Municipality to place the council under the administration of the province was legal.
Bredell was found to have breached his legal and constitutional obligations to address fraud, corruption and maladministration allegations at the Oudtshoorn Municipality and to have exposed himself to the risk of a conflict between his official responsibilities as MEC, and his private interest as a member of the DA.
Winde was reacting to a question in the legislature from GOOD party MPL Shaun August who had said Winde claimed to run a clean ship and a clean administration, but corruption and maladministration in DA-led municipalities was as rife in the Western Cape as it was in the rest of South Africa.
“When will you stop avoiding the issue and discipline your political senior, MEC Bredell, on his second breach of the Executive Ethics Code, when he failed to act on corruption and maladministration in a DA-led municipality?” August asked.
Winde said “We have taken the public protector's position on review, as we have done with many issues the public protector has raised here, because we think in a number of areas she has overstepped the mark.”
He said he recently met Mkhwebane during a roadshow and invited her to the Premier’s Co-ordinating Forum (PCF) which took place last week.
“She came and made a presentation to all the mayors, municipal managers and members of the provincial executive in attendance and there again we reiterated that of course the public protector has a role to play, but when we as the province or a municipality don’t agree with her, we’ll take it on review.”
mwangi.githahu@inl.co.za