Our politicians don’t care about Knysna’s fire victims. Proof of that arrived strongly last night!

Yesterday, I posted a blog requesting that fire victims, especially the homeless, to please contact me. I want us to meet, discuss our challenges and decide if we need our own committee to deal with the Knysna Municipality which hasn’t meaningfully dealt with us in 21 days – yes, it’s exactly 3 weeks since the fire of June 7.

The correct response from our politicians or municipal officials should’ve been to catch a wake-up call and do the best they can to make amends.

EVIL POLITICS

Instead DA Councillor Dr Martin Young, in his twisted mind, saw this as an opportunity to discredit me. In so doing, he would also try to discredit the call for fire victims to stand together.

On his Facebook, which is subscribed by several of our town’s nastier people who previously supported him in his propaganda against me after I presented my allegations of massive political corruption to Parliament, he posted:

“He didn’t. [Hampton’s] home did not burn down. He didn’t ‘lose everything’ in this disaster. He had very little to begin with, and now that there are many, many others in Knysna deserving of help, diluting the sympathy due his way, this is his response…… Knysna was a damaged town before the fires. Please can we move on from this 6 year long assault on our town??? Please??”

Firstly, it’s ridiculous to assume that someone can only help others if they shared their loss. That attitude would wipe out most aid and human rights activists worldwide.

However, I was a rentee and that place I lived in for 2 years I called home. It was the best place I ever lived and I’d hoped to stay there for the rest of my life, my father buying in, me looking after him in his retirement. Everyone who visited me knew my immense love for that place. As for my things, I don’t yet know how to replace the value of that loss (my court cases, alone, were a small fortune in printing).

I may have written much about the fire but I haven’t written my story yet. I lost everything I had except my laptop and what I could put in a small bag. I could’ve gotten more but I chose to first make sure the older residents in our community were safe. I haven’t told you some people left me behind… Councillor Young and his colleagues are that kinds of people.

COMMUNICATION, NOT PROPAGANDA

When someone pointed out to Young that, “[Hampton’s] point is the communication or rather lack of, read the comments from people under his post and seems he has a point, people need to be kept informed,” Young responded with, “This is way bigger. It is accusing him of the same stuff that he accuses the municipality of lacking – honesty, integrity and more! And Knysna was a damaged town way before the fires because of him and certain others. Their integrity is now flawed by association.”

A reasonable leader would’ve ordered him to remove his post and then instituted disciplinary proceedings against him. Instead, Mayor Eleanore Bouw-Spies decided to jump on the bandwagon with:

“I personally as Mayor went out to every affected area within days…had back to back public meetings…which was very well attended…with positive feedback in all meetings. We are now completing those areas not affected giving people an update & information. This is besides all the other mediums we use to inform people. I am sorry to say this is not the truth…but I dare not say it on his page & I will be blocked! We are damned if we do & damned if you don’t. We will keep on helping our people! Stop allowing this person to divide our town…even in the midst of a disaster.”

That is both a lie and a deflection.

My post wasn’t about electricity and water, it was about the people made homeless by the fire. That has not been addressed. Our Mayor hasn’t posted on my page and I haven’t banned her. She will also be well aware that I advertised the first public feedback meeting in Knysna Central, the one that was held at the Premier Hotel. My recording was helpful because far more people heard it than attended.

It’s a poor attempt by Mayor Spies at reverse psychology to blame me for division because I’m asking valid questions she should’ve answered long ago.

REMEMBER WHAT’S IMPORTANT

A lady rightfully commented, “Omg can we keep this about Knysna and the families in desperate need instead of using this complete tragedy as an agenda and to settle personal vendettas….. people died animals died, homes and lives destroyed forever …. you all need to get over this stupid petty personal crap now it’s really enough… considering what’s going on around us.”

Councillor Young couldn’t take the hint, responding with, “This is not a ‘personal’ vendetta – it is a vendetta against a whole town and its administration.” No, Young, this about people being homeless and insecure.

ONGOING, INSIDIOUS ATTEMPTS TO PROTECT CROOKED POLITICIANS

Until I exposed them, Baden Hall, along with Councillor Martin Young and a psychopath called Mark Allan, ran an anonymous Facebook group against me called Protecting Brand Knysna (later changed to Wicked Knysna). Their goal was to discredit me through propaganda. They went so low as to associate me with child abuse and a missing child (that was the political response to my Love Knysna Petition, my allegations of municipal and political corruption to Parliament). I’ve written much about that so not going to repeat that here.

Here, Baden Hall states: “Is was matter of time before this narcissistic low-life once again used a tragedy to endeavour to reap ‘alms’ from the unsuspecting and/gullible public.”

So instead of being a fire victim helping other fire victims, I’m now cast as a con man.

NASTY PEOPLE

Here are comments from other nasty but minor characters who’ve attempted to befriend our politicians…

I don’t know Ronald Freebury but he somehow had a lot of ‘insight’ into me:

“I have a very high discernment due to past experiences with people who con the world into believing their story… I’m sorry that you have even had to deal with this character… I have personally sussed him out and challenged him in a private discussion… Bottom line! What a lowlife lazy man… He needs to get a job like the rest of us and work hard to build a house first before he can even begin to compare himself to the people who have lost much…. He has a gift… Yes… But sadly is misusing that which God intended… Dressing himself as an Angel of light… I’m just glad I am blessed to spot his type a mile away… I’m just sorry for those who can’t and get caught up in his lies…”

Tracy Clifford Statt:

“I noticed how cowardly this character was at the public meeting held by municipality for the community soon after the fire…. he knows that if he tried these pathetic antics in a public forum like that he would have been rugby tackled and held down by several hundred people till a bar of soap was successfully shoved in his dirty little useless mouth.”

Statt’s lying bitchiness is easily exposed by my recording of that meeting.

Angie Manser and Ashley Barnes, a copywriter, were also previously very supportive of the propaganda campaign against me. They returned respectively with, “One of the things which has upset me most about the fires are the people claiming they lost everything,” and, “Nothing repulses me more than somebody who is completely predictable. And I have never witnessed somebody as predictable as Hampton.”

Barnes couldn’t resist bringing kids into it again: “It’s similar to how he claims he has charities and people think he’s trustworthy enough to let their kids be taken out for a day of charitable activities! He is taking kids away from their parents under the guise of charity.” So now I’m a kidnapper too.

I’m very proud of the many trips and joy we brought Knysna’s poor kids for 3 years. Everyone who participated witnessed the value of Love Knysna Projects. The reason why it has been paused is so that I can focus on bringing criminal politicians to justice.

Bjorn Oria, the DA Youth Leader who made a point of coming over to me to shake my hand in Wimpy on Monday, then shows his ‘sensitivity’ with:

“Can someone please tell this character that Monday Wimpy in Knysna will be close on free WiFi… …you are at a wrong planet. I have told you once I can provide you a R10 taxi money to go back to the moon.”

Oria doesn’t believe that those who’ve lost their homes should be allowed to work. If anything, Knysna’s coffee shops have greatly benefited financially from us dispossessed.

THEY’RE NOT ONLY ATTACKING ME

It’s utterly appalling that the Democratic Alliance is using the fire and my misfortune to try to discredit me. They’re not only attacking me, but they’re also attacking the rights of all who lost their homes, particularly rentees and uninsured homeowners.

Unless the Democratic Alliance institute disciplinary hearing against him and Mayor Spies, they will, collectively, have to own every word on Young’s post.

But I don’t have time for their nonsense now. We need answers, particularly our fire department’s alleged role in our disaster and the illegal appointees who were in positions of power. I made myself simple and clear with ‘Knysna Fire Victim Necessities‘.

More important than that is the many who need assistance before the Oyster Festival starts. It’s unacceptable that kind people have flooded our town with millions yet those most in need aren’t being helped.

Do not let yourself be distracted by political bullshit or made coward by it. There has never been a more important time to be strong and together. I’m now convinced that we need a committee, several reasonable and courageous heads better than one.

If people are too scared, or too hopeful for handouts to stand up for themselves, then I’ll fight alone.

This is our town! This is my home. No one is going to burn me out of it!

PS1: This why they’re using the fire as an excuse to try to discredit me – ‘Important Corruption’. The effects of this will last long after the fire.

PS2: The photo I used in my call for the homeless to contact me is where I lived. The pressure must’ve been immense cause my double bed got blown through the single door of the bathroom, it’s burnt springs lying where the shower used to be. Coincidentally, yesterday afternoon, before Young posted, I had a conversation with a lady in Woodmill Lane. I told her that it was probably for the best for Knysna that I had lost in the fire because if I hadn’t the politicians would’ve tried to discredit my attempts to help Instead, now, I could do my best without being hampered by their nonsense. I well know their arrogance but never expected them to attack anyway. Our local politics is a continuous shame…