ATTENTION KNYSNA! This article will likely decide my little future but I’m hoping that it encourages a bigger future for all of us. No matter what political party you belong to, we all live in Knysna and want better lives that are safer and honest. Please give this your full attention!

We have to stop Knysna falling apart. Politically, I’ve tried (and failed) alone. You and I cannot change the status quo overnight. South Africa is in a free fall. Knysna, for example, has one of the worst murder rates in the world (when compared to the murder ration in other countries).

After hard thought, and disappointment after disappointment, I decided that the best way to fix things locally was to strongly encourage Helen Zille to fix DA corruption in Knysna.

I support NO POLITICAL PARTY. If you are DA, I ask you to strive towards making your party more honest so that you vote for what you believe in rather than against what you are scared of.

If you are ANC, understand that this is not a weapon for the ANC against the DA. The ANC has been as wrong in not addressing the corruption and greed in their ranks that is destroying South Africa.

This is a letter against the corruption of all sorts but puts Knysna into the front row seat because it’s easier to change our lives for the better than to focus on faraway powers we have no control over. Let’s control our lives. Together, Black, White and Coloured, we are ALL KNYSNA.

Please share this post. Spread it a thousand times across Facebook, Twitter and email, no matter if you’re on a Blackberry or a PC. If you know a reporter, share it with them. It is only with mass distribution that we can force change in Knysna, towards a future that is better for us all.

I beg you. Please. It’s uneasy writing to you, Helen Zille, a woman I once admired but now hold responsible for the corruption in Knysna. Thank you.

My words come from a mixture of sadness and anger but with an overriding purpose to give you the last chance before I lay charges against many members of your party which, of late, has been totally misnamed as the Democratic Alliance.

There is no political party ploy here. I prefer the hope that you will finally step in, for whatever reason, choosing to forgo the possible smugness of money and lawyers in lieu of DOING THE RIGHT THING. I’m prepared to commit to a long battle but would much rather you correcting your blue ship so that Knysna is on course to a safer place.

Doing the right thing does not include banning me which, essentially, is what has happened. 4 of my emails are blocked, intentionally making it much harder for me to contact your politicians and municipal officials. The newspapers will not report on my charitable deeds nor any of the very serious issues about mismanagement and corruption (i doubt it’s coincidental that the DA and the Knysna Municipality are big advertising contributors). I’m not the first person you’ve done this too.

No one person will respond to me from Eden District, the overlords of Knysna – there’s no way that a 100% block-out is possible without a DA order from above.

Dee Hollely and Kevin Grinaker

Even my local Ward Committee members, unconstitutionally, will not accept my complaints – it’s no surprise that Dee Hollely and Kevin Grinaker are staunch DA supporters and fundraisers. Dee is also the Treasurer for the Executive Committee for the Knysna DA. A third, Colin Lang, is the boyfriend of Richard Dawson, the DA’s Ward 10 councillor. A fourth, Leon Naude, who is also on the Knysna Ratepayer’s Association (as was I when he set up a meeting with Alan Winde, as the KRA, behind my back, which hints further of DA nonsense). Overseeing the workings of Ward Committees and Public Participation is DA councillor and Speaker Michelle Wasserman who was not only on the Tourism Board but on their Finance Committee too (this will become more relevant below).

Richard Dawson outright lied in the CXpress when he said: “My legacy will be the fact that I, with the assistance of our Public Participation Department, established all 10 ward committees – the first time that they are functioning effectively in Knysna. These committees were clearly informed that they may not be party political structures, and that no party matters would be permitted. The Knysna achievement in this regard is now considered among the best in the province.”

And you’re a big part of that illegal and immoral blockade for you, and others beneath you, haven’t responded to my letters in years which is contrary to your claimed rules of response and totally akin to the actions of your local representatives. You and Alan Winde have taught them badly, seemingly that self-interest is more important than public interest, that greed for power is more important than South Africa. Your intentional ignoring of my emails has cost Knysna millions.

Knysna shouldn’t be a pawn in the DA’s national battle for parliamentary seats and power. She is OUR HOME. She’s beautiful and wondrous despite half-healed scars from the ANC and running wounds from the DA.

We’re supposed to aim for the future together. Every elected official should carry the responsibility of that direction. But “should” is not “would’ and “I” is not “we” which better explains the poor state our town is in.

The DA has intentionally ignored its responsibility and is as guilty as the ANC who, as opposition, are suppose to provide a check and balance. It’s damning that the DA, on a South African scale, has done the same, subsuming the ANC’s identity, Becoming It rather than opposing. The DA may as well be the ANC in Knysna, as indivisible by their actions and non-actions, partners in the crimes of silence and the death of transparency in local government. There are screams across South Africa that unfortunately tell us that Knysna is not alone in this injustice.

Richard Dawson, big earning Knysna, DA Councillor who’s clueless

There’s much that could be spoken about this DA activity/non-activity as the Knysna DA’s avoidance of the most serious issues in our town such as alarming crime (our murder rate is 7 times higher than the USA’s) and the community destroyer tik. That the DA came to power in Knysna without a manifesto, with your then leader, Richard Dawson refusing to produce a plan, is absolute proof that the DA does not win elections on their own merit but ignobly relies on the hate and fear that Whites and Coloureds have for the ANC. The public should be voting for what they want, not for what they don’t want. And they should be getting councillors that they recognise, not faceless hairdressers and shop clerks gaining positions such as Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

Worse is that the DA was unanimous with COPE and the ANC in raising their own salaries. The DA promised austerity and then raised no objection to raising municipal salaries 50% over the past 3 years before sending out a flyer explaining to Knysna residents how they can fix their own potholes. It’s possible that 4 to 5 staff members of the small Knysna Municipality, with a population of 75 000, are now receiving packages of between R1 million and R1.4 million. The Municipal Manager earns more than her counterpart in George, a town with more than double the population. It reeks of a payoff. Even though you use different words, it reeks of the same cadre deployment and immoral reward that you accuse the ANC of!

The South African public are starting to realise their mistaken trust in the DA and that you are self-seeking politicians like any other. Even the media, normally controlled by you and white journalist fear, is acting like Hollywood by starting to tear down the heroine of you – just look at the photographs they’re printing of you, the ugly ones they’d never have printed before. I’m not being ugly. I mean that sincerely for I don’t want the propagandised version of what I’m telling you to distract from the facts. The DA is in flux from flip-flopping its agendas. I’m stating what is happening – your media spinners will know I speak the truth.

Georlene Wolmarans

Our Mayor, Georlene Wolmarans, deserves special mention for she is the epitome of democracy destroyed by the DA. She was ID, like Patricia de Lille, and the only logic is that you lied about there been a pay-of for the ID  joining you. It’s floor-crossing in a different dress. How else do you explain Georlene Wolmarans, DA member for only a year, losing her ward to the ANC but becoming the Mayor of Knysna anyway! Why would the DA put a loser in control of our town unless it was for greedy national interests that would hurt Knysna. We matter! How could you allow our lives to be played with?

But on those issues, without massive resources, I cannot charge you but on the matters of Knysna Tourism and the ISDF, which will decide our future, I can. For full detail, you need to follow the following links:

• Knysna Tourism Corruption (Parts 1-5)
• Did the Knysna Tourism Board Pay Half a Million to Hide Their Guilt?
• Disturbing Situation at Knysna Tourism
• Environmental Groups Object (Parts 1-6)

YOU, HELEN ZILLE, CHOSE NOT TO RESPOND. Instead, a response arrive from Alan Winde, in a way that whitewashed the tragedy and crime, and tried to drown me out, acting as the DA against Knysna’s best interests.

Alan Winde – comes from Knysna, owns a house in Knysna, mentors Michelle Wasserman yet refused to help Knysna when mismanagement and corruption were ruining us whose interests is he serving?

Alan Winde, if you’re reading this, I’m calling you out on the fact that you, as the Minister of Tourism for the Western Cape, do not love Knysna. You refused to look into this, would not give a response by email (so there was proof) and, ironically, after referring to the very people I was complaining against, used them as a reason why “my brand was bad”. You ignored every fact and query I gave you! You chose to pass me over, illogically, to be dealt with the Knysna Business Chamber, the same people who were friends with the ex-CEO of Knysna Tourism and supporters of the DA. The Knysna Business Chamber was so ‘powerful’ that their chairperson was a failed businessman who later announced that the Chamber of Business had closed down. Furthermore, that Dave Hendry and his vice-chair, Craig de Villiers, were the same people who would not address Knysna Tourism, in their role as check-and-balance, and instead asked me to shut-up in the misnamed interest of Knysna. Or was that in the best interests of the DA? People who love Knysna do not shut-up.

Aside from the numerous emails to DA (non) functionaries such as Alan Winde, let me remind you that I warned you that something was seriously amiss at Knysna Tourism, before more money was sent down the black hole by DA management:

• www.knysnakeep.org/dear-helen-zille-the-knysna-da-is-a-lie-part-1
• www.knysnakeep.org/dear-helen-zille-the-knysna-da-is-a-lie-part-2
• www.knysnakeep.org/dear-helen-zille-is-the-da-rotten-part1
• www.knysnakeep.org/dear-helen-zille-is-the-da-rotten-part-2

Read: Part 2 of ‘Dear Helen Zille, You’re My Disappointment’