It’s happening on YOUR watch, Madam Leader

Shame on you, Helen Zille! Shame… On… You!

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Oudtshoorn. 1 September 2012. 12h25. While the DA base on Thursday curtly told Brummer that they were too busy to consider his arguments and would respond by next week, and while even intimate members of the Zille political cabal are warning against the cessation of Brummer’s DA membership, OO publishes the following facts – 68 facts, to be precise…

As you read, think about this: If the DA can do to Brummer what it did, what do you think the DA can do to YOU, dear voter?

And to my many DA Councillor readers across the land: Do YOU feel secure in YOUR positions?

1. Brummer came from the DP to the DA at its founding in 2000.
2. Brummer became a councillor on 5 December 2000.
3. Brummer started off earning an allowance of just R 2,346.34.
4. From the outset, despite the low salaries he dedicated himself exclusively and full time to his work as councillor.
5. For 10 years he funded everything needed to do the job of councillor, every scrap of paper, every paper clip, computer, ink, printer, every km travelled, all the basics, out of his own funds – nothing from the party and nothing from the municipality.
6. He fought 5 elections and 1 bye-election. For two of those in addition to campaigning did all the menial work like pasting and hanging posters for the whole town.
7. Between 2004 and 2006 election he paid a full time worker to promote the DA in New Horisons out of his own pocket.
8. During the floor crossing period he withstood the pressure to abandon the DA when Councillor Truter went to the ANC and Councillor du Plessis went independent.
9. When the DA was reduced to just 2 councillors after the floor crossing , and Pierre Koep gave up and rolled over to the ANC he stood firm. For all intents and purposes alone against the ANC.
10. In 2006 thanks largely to his work, the DA grew back to three councillors out of ten.
11. When he could have claimed the safe ward seat he stood back for Donald Grant, taking his chances on the PR list below Elaine Paulse.
12. He found himself with two totally inexperienced councillors – Grant and Paulse but carried on regardless, having to carry them much of the time. .
13. Throughout he took the lead in preparing and submitting numerous motions and questions to council as opposed to his colleagues that did nothing themselves.
14. Grant spent most of his time working on fishing industry stuff in Cape Town and Elain on her NGO work.
15. A measure of his effectiveness as a councillor was that prior to the 2006 election he scratched out and fearlessly pursued the Seitisho/Wildeman and other corruption.
16. He took the fight straight to the ANC and put himself on the line with little if any support on council.
17. When the ANC had him arrested for trespass in the council chamber he stood firm riding out the storm and turned it into an opportunity to take the DA into the black townships for the first time.
18. When the ANC attacked him by bringing the slipper charges against him in 2007/8 he stood firm. The DA did not support him with legal representation and he arranged his own defence lawyer – Frank Raymond.
19. When the ANC brought a massive defamation claim against him, the DA promised to assist with all legal costs, but in the end paid only a relatively small amount leaving it to him to cover his own costs and to have to rely on the charity of individual DA members to assist. (Grant, Robin Carlisle, and Theuns Botha contributed. Does Oudtshoorn know about DA promises to pay legal costs! Hoo boy, don’t get me started!)
20. When the ANC had him physically thrown out of the oversight meeting in 2011 and had him arrested for “riotous behaviour,” he received no support from his colleagues on council but he again stood firm and fought them and paid his own legal costs.
21. Over the time he studied and researched making sure that he knew more about the relevant legislation than anybody else on the council.
22. He continued his work in the Black townships between 2006 and the present and slowly but surely gained the confidence of many people in these communities, and continuously and fearlessly spread the DA message, opening the door for the DA.
23. During the unrest in 2007, he was there for the people of Kwano. Supporting in every way he could and spending thousands out of his own pocket on legal fees, doctors’ bills for those injured, etc.
24. These personal sacrifices formed the foundation for the good will towards the DA generated in these communities.
25. Out of this hard work came the co-operation with QMQ.
26. He also used the fall-out between Memory Booysen and the ANC to draw Booysen closer to the DA, by quietly and unobtrusively supporting him and QMQ during this period.
27. He wooed Veronica Terblanche, the ID councillor, and got her to work with the DA and the re-elected and now independent Memory. Through his efforts there was now effectively a unified block of 5 opposition councillors opposing the 6 ANC councillors.
28. This hard work and sacrifice paid off for the DA in the 2009 election when for the first time ever the ANC fell below 50% support in Plett.
29. He had set the stage for a 2011 victory for the DA in Plett.
30. When the DA won the Province in 2009 election Grant went to parliament leaving him with Elaine and another entirely inexperienced councillor Charles Dreyer.
31. He continued taking the fight to the ANC with little or no support.
32. During the run up to the election in 2011, he and his partner Debi took responsibility for the most difficult ward in Bitou, Bossisgif/Qoleni, and built the biggest branch in Bitou – over 600 members. Only massive intimidation from the ANC prevented that from being converted into votes on the day.
33. In late 2010 when he became convinced the DA could take power in Bitou he repeatedly travelled to Cape Town at own expense and agitated for a pre-prepared administrative team to step into the management vacuum that cadre deployment had created in Plett municipality.
34. He was repeatedly given assurances that a team had been established and would be sent in to take over the administration. In the end this did not materialise and the DA in Plett, comprised of mostly inexperienced councillors faced a hostile administration.
35. In the election process he again, like in 2006, declined to make a bid for the safe seat, leaving that to Dreyer.
36. When Booysen, due to negligence, failed to register QMQ in time for the election, Brummer convinced him and QMQ to throw their weight behind the DA.
37. This tactic resulted in a landslide victory for the DA in ward 1.
38. He also convinced Booysen to join the DA at the last minute and sacrificed his position at the top of the list to Booysen – all for the benefit of the DA.
39. During the election, when Booysen and QMQ had no resources to fight an election, he funded them out of his own pocket, making “loans” that were never to be repaid. A prime example was when Booysen’s car’s tyres were down to canvass and he bought him a new set – he has never been repaid.
40. Even after the election, when the newly elected councillors had no money, he funded their accommodation, etc out of his own pocket for a trip to Worcester for a DA meeting. Although some of them did repay, others either short paid or did not pay at all. Brummer again took the loss on himself.
41. As always during an election Brummer spent tens of thousands on the campaign out of his own pocket to the benefit of the DA.
42. Just before the election Brummer uncovered the R28m land deal. Despite revealing the serious irregularities to his fellow councillors, Paulse and Dreyer, they voted with the ANC for the deal to go head leaving him as the sole councillor to vote against the deal.
43. He drove the campaign against the deal relentlessly and alone without support from his colleagues and in the end saved the ratepayers R28million.
44. Once in power, he was the only councillor with the knowledge and skills to assist the acting municipal management leaders to successfully bring the necessary charges against the MM to dismiss him.
45. Due to the inexperience of the new DA councillors he found himself in the council chambers without the necessary support against the ANC’s all-out efforts to make the town ungovernable.
46. When Brummer received a negative judgement in his court application, Booysen, without explanation, quashed his appeal at the eleventh hour, costing him his position as Speaker and the municipality more than R1m in costs.
47. He did all the preparation work for that matter and in doing so saved the municipality hundreds of thousands. As a result of his work, the municipality’s costs amounted to little over R200k compared to the ANC’s R900k.
48. On 14 July 2012 the DA working with the ANC councillors took the illegal decision to rescind its decision of 23 April to bring disciplinary charges against Monde Stratu, on the strength of the Mayor’s recommendation that “somebody at National Treasury says the charges won’t stick.” and against professional advice and the advice of the Acting Municipal Manager.
49. Again Brummer was the only councillor to stand up against this patently illegal and incorrect decision. The item had never been caucused and Brummer was the sole vote against this bad decision.
50. On 18 July he submitted a detailed report of what had happened to the DA Western Cape minister of local government, Anton Bredell.
51. In the more than six weeks that have elapsed since then, Bredell has not responded.
52 The Mayor and DA are on record that the reason for the decision was as follows:
“In the case of Mr. Stratu, Council became aware that all procedures regarding his case had not been correctly followed as prescribed in the Amended Municipal Systems Act of 2011. This had compromised his case and it was felt that the charges had to be withdrawn. Some of the alleged charges fell outside his scope of work, and these would never have stood up in the Labour Court. Council withdrew charges and Mr Stratu continues as HOD Strategic Services.”
53. This is patently untrue and in conflict with what he is on record as telling council.
54. An immediate result of this unlawful decision was that a hasty settlement had to be reached with another senior official, Carl Mattheus, undergoing a disciplinary process.
55. This settlement will has cost the ratepayers of Bitou in the region of R2m.
56. At about the same time, the DA caucus resolved that the Mayor must offer Grant Easton the MM position at a salary of R1,012,000 per annum. Council resolved accordingly. The Mayor, however, offered just R880k pa. to Easton. Easton countered that he would take the position at a salary of R1m. Without reverting to council the Mayor responded to him that after careful consideration R 880 was the maximum the municipality could go to. The Mayor reported to council and has since publicly sated that Easton had declined the position quoting Easton as saying, “Thanks, but no thanks.” This blunder has two immediate results.
Firstly, In terms of labour law, the municipality now finds itself locked into a maximum salary of just R880k. for its MM for the next five years. It is highly unlikely that a suitable person will be prepared to take up the position and have the persons reporting to him earn substantially more than he does.
Secondly, if the municipality does make an appointment of R880k or more in this position as they will inevitably have to do, it will immediately face an unfair labour practice claim from Easton amounting to more than R5m. The Mayor knows this but continues to try to lie his way out.
57. The municipality has been without a Municipal Manager for nearly a year and under those circumstances what needs to be done cannot be done properly.
58. The municipality is suffering and the ratepayers are being exposed to ever growing financial damages while the DA does nothing to bring its obviously under-performing Mayor and councillors under control.
59. The only action the DA has taken is to dismiss its only councillor in Bitou with the requisite knowledge, skills and most importantly the will to ensure the turn around of the municipality’s fortunes and to reinstate good governance.
60. The reason the DA gives for this is that he is alleged to owe what they now admit to be an undetermined amount in “candidate’s fees.”
61. Even if it was so that he owed the R5,621 as alleged, how does the DA justify removing him as a member and councillor without even having anybody to replace him.
62. He has an absolutely clean disciplinary record with the DA over 12 years.
63. The other DA councillors’ combined knowledge and understanding of how a municipality and council works obviously does not come close to his and it is a proven fact that they cannot cope.
64. The local DA structures and councillors have not reported back to members and ratepayers once since the elections.
65. The DA branch has not held a single meeting since the election.
66. The local DA constituency executive has supported the councillors in their cover-up of what has gone wrong in council and the municipality.
67. The DA Minister of local government has not taken any action to investigate or correct the serious issues reported to him.
68. The DA constituency head, Grant, has also not responded to Brummer’s reports and complaints on what has been going wrong in the party and municipality in Plett.

Shame on you, Helen Zille!

Shame… On… You!

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