On the Knysna Fire special on KFM this morning, i hope that heroes and victims are the focus rather than political spotlight theft. I state that because the one person who should not be interviewed is Knysna Mayor Eleanore Spies.

Whilst our town was in trouble early Wednesday afternoon, she and Speaker Georlene Wolmarans tried to force a quick budget through Council.

It was a chaotic meeting during which councillors were getting emergency calls – they were in and out of the room to talk on their cellphones. However, the Democratic Alliance was determined to pass their budget so the circus continued, even with a damn speech from ‘our’ Mayor.

Not one person asked the Directors what was happening even though the fire was already causing electrical failures which were, in turn, affecting water and sewerage pumps.

Kudos to COPE Councillor Elrick van Aswegen who stated he was against the budget and left never to return.

However the ANC and Independent Waxa were stuck, the DA determined to pass the budget without them if they left. When they began to raise their budgetary concerns, our damn Mayor, in a moment of supreme hypocrisy, accused them of using the emergency as leverage to be heard.

I may have no love for any of these politicians but the truth must be known: If anyone was using our emergency as leverage, it was the damn DA.

Mayor Spies must get off her high horse!

Mayor Spies must get off her high horse!

The reason why the DA suddenly voted, ending the meeting, was because Deputy Mayor Peter Myers’ house, in Brenton-on-Sea, was threatened.

I’ve reported on many bad things in our Knysna Municipality but this was Spies’ and Wolmaran’s greatest shame.

An hour ago, i bumped into Mayor Spies and her buddy, Fran Kirsten (yes, the one that illegally became Communication’s Manager of the Knysna Municipality). Kirsten had the audacity to state that this is about all of us and that, basically, i shouldn’t cause trouble.

Of course our town must work together, and there are amazing stories coming out which we must applaud, but that cannot blind us to what went wrong. From mistakes and ‘mistakes’, we must learn!

One of the biggest problems during this crisis is that communication from the Knysna Municipality is poor.

The Democratic Alliance doesn’t get to pretend they care about our town.

From the bottom of my heart, FUCK THE MAYOR.