Again, the Knysna Municipality and Democratic Alliance misrepresented what actually happened regarding the initial tender for the ISDF, the long-term plan for Knysna.

It’s the Municipality’s legal duty to respond to an objector. Instead, they seem to disregard objections that aren’t followed by legal action against them (objections that they can defend, ironically, by using public funds).

The main fact i draw from the facts below is that our local government did everything it could to illegally ignore an objection that, in bigger context, questioned their bias towards a consortium headed by property developers.

FALSEHOOD ABOUT ISDF OBJECTION

The Knysna Municipality/DA presentation said:

“At the time of the award [of the initial ISDF tender], the Knysna Municipality appointed Mr. FJ Fischer of the firm CJ Ballan Inc. to deal with the objections. All objections considered to be relevant by the then Municipal Manager Lauren Waring, were submitted to Mr. Fischer, which included the 29-page objection of Ms. Campbell.”

Susan Campbell responds:

It is stated that all objections that were considered relevant by the Municipal Manager were submitted to Mr. Fisher. Ms. Waring had a legal duty to submit all objections to Mr. Fisher and not only the objections she considered to be relevant.

It is stated that Ms. Waring submitted my objection of 29 pages to Mr. Fisher. This is contradicted by the information provided to me in 2014 pursuant to Promotion of Access to Information Act (PAIA) request. My objection was delivered on 7 May 2013. Mr. Fisher was instructed by Ms. Waring and Mr. Easton on 24 April 2013 and the objections were delivered to him on the same day. On 29 April 2013, Mr. Fisher provided Ms. Waring with a letter that should be forwarded to all objectors. (A copy of this letter is forwarded separately.)

It is therefore clear that my objection could not have been considered by Mr. Fisher as the objection was delivered to the Municipality eight days after he had sent the letter.

LEGAL ACTION DEBATE

The Knysna Municipality/DA presentation said:

Lauren Waring, Knysna’s ex-Municipal Manager

“Further communications between the attorneys acting on behalf of Ms Campbell and our Manager Legal Services followed, ending with an electronic email from Howard Ross, of Ed Rass Attorneys, advising that they will be consulting with their advocates to bring an urgent interdict application against Knysna Municipality, preventing them from proceeding with the ISDF.

Needless to say, no application was ever brought by Ms. Campbell or any objector to the ISDF tender award.”

Susan Campbell responds:

“The reason we did not proceed with the interdict is because our Advocate advised us that the court may not consider the matter to be urgent and because of a lack of funding.

We were also waiting for a reply to our PAIA requests.

We managed to collect sufficient funds in December 2013 but only received a response to our [information] requests in April 2014. At that stage, the 180 days within which we had to bring a review application had expired.”

Read Part 3 of ‘Campbell Rejects Municipality’s Answers to Parliament’.

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