Knysna Mayor Eleanore Spies Resorts to Propaganda as Her Defence
Eleanore Spies
It’s been a whirlwind since my second presentation of allegations of DA corruption to a Committee of Parliament. Thank you to the many people who’ve wished me well the past two days or asked me to pass on compliments to the brave Susan Campbell (who appeared as a witness). There were 6 kind people in just the walk from Woodmill Lane to Knysna Mall 🙂
Unfortunately, good things don’t erase the dark side of this story which is politically determined to stay dark…
During the Knysna Council meeting this morning, Mayor Eleanore Spies complained about Parliament, said she was taking the SABC to the Press Ombudsman, and singled out me as a member in the audience.
It got worse.
She said she’d welcome a forensic audit but when it was proposed as a motion of exigency (urgency) 3 hours later, she, her fellow DA councillors, the KUC and the ACDP voted against it.
Her moment of hypocrisy wasn’t enough for her. This afternoon, she issued a vicious press release against me and Susan Campbell – read it to believe how bad it is! It offers nothing to negate the corruption I’ve claimed. All she does is point fingers in the hope no one notices that she’s not explaining illegal appointments, the forensic report into her husband, cronyism and the loss of many millions.
I commented:
“Mayor Spies, I’d have preferred a mayor of transparency who is accepting of responsibility… but instead of providing answers to the issues I’ve presented, answers the public deserve, you continue to hide. Now you issue another propaganda press release that becomes further evidence against you and every Councillor who shares it. It’s a temper tantrum, very unbecoming of an Executive Mayor. In Council today, you said you’d welcome forensic investigation yet, 3 hours later, when it was introduced as a motion of exigency, you voted against it. You told Parliament that you didn’t want to attend because you wanted to work on the budget. But you were lying. You never cared about our town. You just wanted to use our town as an excuse. It makes us your used toilet paper. You and half the Council were 300km away, campaigning for the DA in Beaufort West. Maybe it’s true that your goal was to use our town as a quick stepping stone to promotion in the provincial DA. But, right now, all that your shocking lie is going to accomplish is to embarrass Knysna to the country.”
Surely a good Mayor would put 6 years of allegations to rest by setting up a public meeting that promotes honest questioning and answering? Instead, Mayor Spies has long failed to accept my challenge to publicly debate her. For the sake of our town, the offer is renewed.
In my opinion, a good mayor with nothing to hide would stop hiding.