The press statement begins with: “The Eden District Municipality took the lead in fighting corruption by launching an Eden anti-fraud and anti-corruption hotline.” [Knysna and Plett fall under Eden District].

With history in mind, that would appear to be a joke. After all, their DA Mayor, Wessie van der Westhuizen, had a disciplinary committee vote unanimously that he should be removed as a councillor after he was found guilty on breaching the Municipal Finance Management Act and the Councillor’s code of conduct. Furthermore, a forensic report recommended that he be charged with corruption. 

Wessie’s implicated wife has already being kicked out so you must be wondering why he, and several of his cohorts, are still earning their big salaries?

The ID/DA’s Wessie van der Westhuizen

Wessie is a Councillor in Oudtshoorn, forwarded on to Eden District as was Knysna’s DA Councillor, Doris Nayler. Doris Nayler is another who never responded to my queries regards corruption at Knysna Tourism. In Eden, as Speaker, she’s failed the Garden Route by not charging Wessie. And the only thing that makes sense is that people high up in the DA and the Western Cape government, have given them orders to stand down… and let Eden suffer the serpent of political ambitions for the past year. Similarly, it can only be the reason why every Director has failed to respond to my pleas for investigation into corruption in Knysna… twice.

The former is about the political stand-off in Oudtshoorn. There, the ANC and the DA have fought a vicious battle for power that has cost the taxpayer millions. The ANC has bollocksed up that town as much as the DA but the press has being incredibly biased on the DA’s behalf e.g. when ANC members switched to the DA, the press proclaimed the blue t-shirts… but when the judge slapped each with a R100 000 fine for the illegal takeover, there was barely a whisper. Fact is that the DA can’t afford a by-election as it may swing the precarious balance in favour of the ANC… so they’ve hung onto Wessie. The ANC has responded by using municipal money to fight back. Either way, it’s screw the taxpayer, they don’t matter.

The ID/DA’s Georlene Wolamarans

This also involves the deal that both Helen Zille and Patrician de Lille denied making that got 4 ID members into mayorships. Knysna’s bizarre, out-of-nowhere, i-lost-my-ward-but-became-mayor-anyway, Georlene Wolmarans, was one of them. Important to note that the ID is only truly incorporated into the DA when this years general election arrives. So the DA has been sweet talking the ID, and allowing corruption to continue unabated, lest Patricia de Lille pull her support.

So now the corrupt have ironically introduced an anti-fraud and anti-corruption hotline. It wouldn’t surprise me if one day, after they eventually get rid of Wolmarans and Westhuizen, that they rely on the public’s short memory and claim this hotline as proof that they fought the good fight. So i put it into this blog lest history become, well, history.

But i beg you to test the Eden District Anti Fraud Hotline at 0800 21 47 64. You could take 5 points down from one of the topics on this site and phone in your query. or you could approach them with an original complaint.

Calls to the hotline are free from any Telkom line. The hotline is externally accredited to the forensic audit and investigation firm, KPMG and will be called the KPMG ethics line. It will be manned by KPMG personnel 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Calls are fielded by experienced call centre agents versed in all 11 official languages as well as French, Dutch, German and Portugese.

Doris Nayler – Eden Speaker & Knysna councillor for DA

All reported information will immediately be captured onto a call sheet and transmitted directly to a designated person appointed by the organisation.

What to report to the hotline: People can report corruption, sexual harassment, dishonesty, financial statement fraud, damage to the environment, discrimination, health and safety violations, unethical behaviour and misconduct, fraud, theft and other criminal offences to the operators of the hotline.

What not to report: Employment grievances and complaints, petty arguments amongst staff and personality clashes.

Checklist before you call: Before you make a call to the hotline, make sure to have information on the following: in which division or department the incident took place, where it happened, the nature of the incident, the date and time the incident took place, how long the incident has been going on, how often it happens, how many people are involved and their names, does anybody else know about the incident, is there any proof and are there any witnesses.

Happy phoning.