Johan Brummer

Part 1 here.

Calling the then protection unit “thuggish” ANC private army or “ANC goons” will not make any difference to the fact that the Head of that Unit won a case against the DA in the High Court. We are aware that the DA has declared war against individuals in that unit. The DA is doing their best to fight and win Brummer’s ego-battles.

There are many DA aligned officials who worked in the municipality during the ANC era. All ANC councilors didn’t just insist that those officials be given space like everybody else to work in the municipality, but went on to sanction that their contracts be renewed. Their argument was that they are not in council to purge anybody but to deliver services and they believed that those officials would contribute to service delivery like all others. And we are proud of that leadership shown by the ANC in Bitou.

The DA is on record as having challenged other NPA prosecurial decisions. They had that right to challenge the NPA decision on the former Mayor and Municipal Manager. But there’s good reason why the DA didn’t follow that route. It’s because their supposed star witness Brummer was exposed during the former municipal manager’s disciplinary hearing.

Christianson should know that withholding the truth is worse than lying. The chairperson of the hearing never said this about the charge sheet; Christianson is cleverly trying to twist his words. He stated that he could have found the former municipal manager guilty on other (minor) transgressions but that those transgressions were not in the charge sheet.

It is important to note that the charge sheet was drafted by the senior legal advisor of the SIU and that the prosecutor received instructions from the MEC to charge according to the charge sheet as drafted in the SIU’s report. The DA was satisfied with the charge sheet.

After the hearing the DA released a press statement, questioning the finding of not guilty, describing the prosecutor as professional and well respected. The transcription of the hearing clearly shows Brummer conceding on all ten charges that if he knew all the facts at the time, he never would have gone to the media and there would have been no necessity of a hearing.

All charges were as preferred by the DA. In order to avoid being seen as protecting corruption, the ANC councilors gave Brummer carte blanche to meet with the prosecutor and explain each and every allegation and explain which laws were transgressed.

All the witnesses from the SUI and the DA were torn apart under cross-examination by Seitisho’s attorney. Under cross examination, Brummer admitted that his complaints was politically motivated and stated that it was “the icing on the cake of their election campaign.”

He also conceded that, “the DA overreacted when it announced the fraud and maladministration in the media” He blamed this on Seitisho’s failure to give him information he claimed he first saw during the hearing. He said he was satisfied with the authenticity and correctness of the information. He couldn’t have made those allegations if he had the information before.

I challenge the DA to produce full transcript of the judgment in that case, and if it proves me wrong then I will withdraw this and put an apology wherever this would have been published.

It would’ve helped Christianson if he wrote the “research” than do cut and paste because that method leads to some matters and facts being conflated, which in turn leads to absurdity and disclosures that were supposed to have been left in the DA’s internal correspondence. Unwittingly, Christianson confirms what we had been saying all along, former Municipal Manager, Lonwabo Ngoqo, was suspended for political reasons.

We are told that Memory Booysen was provided with a bulletproof vest because of threats identified by the MEC for Public Safety. I put on record that there was never such an investigation and Booysen never received threatening messages as alleged. All cell phones are registered to a specific person in terms of the law. If there have been death threats to Booysen then a crime has been committed.

Let the record of such messages be retrieved, the senders be arrested and the public be told who those people are. Memory stated on Carte Blanche the following, and I quote: “I’ve always been the enemy… they’ve always regarded me as the enemy. And now all of a sudden I’m the enemy with executive powers. Now it is a different ball game for them and probably the best thing is to get rid of me.”

The ratepayer is coughing up about R240 000-00 per month for body guards because the mayor made a ridiculous and unsubstantiated assumption. But this of course looks good for the DA since it makes the ANC look bad, so for them it’s worth every penny. The irony hereof is off course that the DA removed his executive powers the moment he became the mayor.

On 14 April 2008, and at a public meeting, DA’s Donald Grant complained that there were 13 vacancies in the municipality that were not filled. This matter was later reported in the newspapers as the DA was livid that administration was not filling every position that was vacant. The DA must tell when they became aware that the staff establishment was inflated.

Sipho Kroma’s hotel accommodation was paid on instructions from Memory Booysen. On the other hand he had told Kroma that he would sort the account out because he had contacts from the hotel group as he worked there before joining the municipality. I know that Booysen claims that he was forced by then Mayor to pay the account. If his claims are true, he knew it was wrong to do so. Why did he do it?

In his infamous email to a Cape Town businessman, Peter Ahern, on June 2, 2006, Brummer partly wrote, “My feeling is that they (ANC councilors) are still going to be with us for a long time unless the people in the township can convince the ANC by means of civil unrest to remove them.” He went further to write that he was in talks with those who led the subsequent violence in the township. In his report back to the DA leaders, Brummer explain how much time and funds were invested in the “Kwanokuthula Project” which was carried out under the banner of “QM”.

It is interesting that Brummer and DA by extension decided to foment violence in the township not in the suburbs. This was the former apartheid covert operative at his best, divide through violence, and rule. So, yes it’s true that “under ANC rule, there were numerous incidents of violence against political opponents”, but the DA sponsored that violence. The violence only stopped when most influential senior members of the group changed their minds and disclosed what we already knew that the DA was funding the violence.

The former leaders of QM, who are now going to testify for the state, describes in detail how the “QM” operation was managed, and that they even went as far as to burn down their own members houses and then accuse the ANC thereof. Those members who lost their houses were later reimbursed.

A very well known estate agent in Plett, who up until recently claimed openly that he is the political advisor to Brummer, was the main funder of this project. Last year attorney Hardy Mills laid formal charges of sedition (a form of high treason) against them at Plett Police station and the docket is currently at the DPP’s office for decision.

Soon thereafter the DA shamelessly accused him (Mills) of fueling the violence in Bossiesgif and Qolweni, and being somehow involved in the arson of the municipal buildings when in truth he successfully negotiated a cease fire with these two communities as well as the Kranshoek community.

If there was any substance in allegations against Seitisho, Mapitiza, Leluma and Peter Lobese why was the case permanently removed from the court roll, or was this another of those stories where the NPA protected the ANC-connected individuals? As the DA was an integral part of the charges against these people, why didn’t the party challenge the failure by the NPA to proceed with the case?

Booysen must tell the truth. His disgruntlement with the ANC stemmed from the fact that he was not appointed the mayor, and nothing else. The ANC in Bitou, led by Mvimbi and Mapitiza had promised Booysen that he was going to be made the mayor. A different approached was advanced and after intensive discussions it prevailed. The only reason why he turned against the ANC is because of this disappointment that he would not become the mayor anymore. Booysen must tell the truth.

Mvimbi was warned weeks before his house was stoned with his children in it, but he didn’t believe that such would happen. He also didn’t believe that he would be physically attacked. The DA deliberately avoids mentioning that Mvimbi’ was provided bodyguards only after he was physically attacked.

The reason they avoid saying this is because the DA, ably represented by Brummer, initiated the physical assault on Mvimbi. His injuries were attended to at the hospital and his car was wrecked after being stoned in full view of his family.

It is untrue that the security costs for 2007 were R4m, and we challenge the DA to submit proof to that effect. The DA is spending R240 000 per month on protection of Booysen despite there never been any threats on him or his family.

Mvimbi moved into the house not because it was safe or because it was a mayoral house per se. He moved in there because landlords in town regarded him as a security risk. Like any other municipal official living in a municipal owned house, Mvimbi paid for staying in the house. It was never provided free of charge and never meant for the mayors. There was no security features added to the house. No improved fencing. It was like any other house in that street or occupied by municipal official somewhere else in town.

We’ve practiced biblical Job’s patience since 2005 when the DA started serializing lies about ANC corruption. Honestly this story about corrupt ANC is a tired rhetoric from bankrupt minded DA. Now they claim that a “grant of nearly R30m” had been “lost”. Why not move quickly to lay charges against those entrusted with it?

The “research” was completed in September 2011. In November 2011 the AG delivered management letter, which was pointing towards another unqualified audit. The DA deployees at the meeting, tried to push for a qualification in order to have been vindicated. But their devious plot failed the test of internationally acceptable auditing tests. They even put on some dubious investigations that have to date not yielded anything resembling corruption or maladministration.

The AG audited books using the very same documents that the DA is throwing around here. The AG is biased towards clean governance; not in favour of any political party. That makes the difference.

Christianson writes; “Bitou has received an unqualified audit from the Auditor-General for the last three years. However, as the AG’s final report is a tick-box exercise, it is always worth reading the entire document to see what nuance appears. In this case it is significant.” (For the record, another unqualified report was received since the so-called “research”.)

This is typical DA. The DA-led provincial government parades its senior MECs every year to tell the country that they received unqualified audits and uses that to blow a trumpet about their “good governance” record. When the ANC led municipality gets the same results, from the same process, using the same tools, and then auditing system is slated. This is hypocrisy and so-called experts are quiet as graves.

The DA cowboys never learn. They always shoot from the hip. They should have just asked for an explanation on the so-called “drinking binge” on ratepayer’s account and they would have received proof that the money came from the officials’ pockets. But again, they might know the truth and decided to hide that from public to win cheap political points.

The municipality had a 97% success rate in their litigation matters before June 2011, after that it went down to 0%.

At least eight investigation teams have been brought to Bitou in the past ten months, and we are still waiting for proof of corruption claimed in this and other press releases by the DA. These teams literally combed the desert (including all the invoices of the previous municipal attorney) in their quest to find corruption and/or mall administration. As soon as the one team gives up, they appoint another team.

I repeat what I said in the past; the DA must go lay criminal charges against any of the ANC officials and councilors who allegedly stole from the public purse. If they don’t lay charges, they must just shut their big mouths up and provide services to the people. Even George W Bush eventually admitted that there never were any weapons of mass destruction but the DA is way too proud to admit same. But just like Bush, the DA won the war thanks to these false claims. Now Bush has oil and the DA has the municipal coffers so both in truth do not give a hoot.

In their letter to Lefatshe Technologies, the DA said they wanted to terminate the contract because the municipality had no money. Nowhere in the letter is non-performance mentioned. If there was non-performance, why didn’t they tell Lefatshe Technologies so?

The DA is starting to panic because the people’s eyes are slowly starting to open. The public is starting to realize that they are being deceived. With the help of organizations like the Justice and Quality Front things are unraveling. Not a million more articles from the Christiansons of the world will be able to prevent this.

Nice try, Christianson, but no cigar!