COGTA Portfolio Chair Faith Muthambi has referred Western Cape corruption to the Special Investigating Unit (SIU).

The complaint, with detailed evidence, was submitted by me, Mike Hampton. I am an anti-corruption activist forced out of Knysna 3 years ago. I am currently living in Kwazulu-Natal (KZN).

Most of the lawbreaking is rooted in Knysna but implicates Provincial and National DA leadership. Oudtshoorn crime was submitted too.

It is uncertain if the referral to South Africa’s elite investigators will matter. Other National Government agencies have deliberately failed before them.

It is more probable that the Democratic Alliance (DA) will silence me before the SIU act. Relatedly, the Western Cape High Court has ordered my imprisonment, a direct result of the DA’s cover-up strategy.

'Same Shit, Different Government' pdf (2410 downloads)

SLAPPed

The DA has failed to act on my complaints since 2010. They blocked me and chose concealment. That gave impunity to those involved and emboldened more wrongdoing.

The DA attacked me with SLAPP, the acronym for Strategic Lawsuit Against Public Participation. In layman’s terms, they buried me in court cases that I have been unable to defend without money and lawyers.

Making defence further impossible is the blatant bias for the DA by Chapter 9’s and the ‘justice’ fraternity. They have not represented me.

The DA claims to not be involved but the pattern is unmistakable. The plaintiffs were DA politicians and their friends (most linked to Knysna Tourism, a Section 21 company that was receiving Public monies without having tendered, and with the knowledge of Premier Alan Winde). Most are implicated in various corruptions I have exposed.

• The plaintiffs include/included National Assembly Member Eleanore Spies, ex-Knysna Deputy Mayor Esme Edge (aka Esme Jefferys), ex-Speaker Richard Dawson, ex-Councillor Martin Young, repeated ex-DA Candidate and ex-municipal staff Advocate Julie Seton, ex-DA Candidate Magda Moos, Sedgefield Fire Station Commander Wayne Sternsdorf, ex-Knysna Tourism CEO Greg Vogt, and friends of previous Knysna Tourism CEO Shaun van Eck, Baden Hall and Mark Allan.
• I received further legal threat from Helen Zille, Alan Winde, Anton Bredell, Mayor Eleanore Spies and Speaker Georlene Wolmarans.
• Zille and Winde have been Knysna’s Constituency Officer so know the dirty politics well. Bredell is MEC for Local Government, directly involved in many matters in Knysna.
• Edge, Spies and Dawson were directors on Knysna Tourism’s Board.
• Edge and Seton are neighbours of Sternsdorf, and friends with Moos.
• Edge was on Council with Dawson, Spies and Young.
• Winde congratulated Young after he made his first post against me, wishing him well in his candidacy which was successful despite me having reported him to Winde via email and to Zille in a face-to-face meeting.

There have been several criminal charges against me because I continued to publish evidence.

DA Speaker Georlene Wolmarans and her successor, ANC Speaker Titi Gombo, denied my request for me to address Council.

Contrastingly, the South African Local Government Organisation’s (SALGA) Lance Joel appeared illegally before the Knysna Council – he was not on the agenda and opposing Councillors had not been notified. Before the meeting, he was hugged by several DA members, including then-Speaker Wolmarans who was on the provincial SALGA Committee.

SALGA offered support to the then DA-led Council to make me a test case for Government suing a citizen.

SALGA CEO Xolile George’s response to my complaint was to threaten to sue me.

Legal Aid repeatedly denied me representation and threatened to sue me when I complained.

Human Rights Watch Director Dewa Mavhinga stated, “We do not have a mandate to take on individual cases,” and referred me to the South African Human Rights Commission (SAHRC).

The SAHRC lied that they would help. That included Western Cape Commissioner Chris Nissen and Attorney Tammy Carter. It is impossible that CEO Tseliso Thipanyaneis unaware of the situation and my complaint after my many emails and calls.

The Knysna Magistrates Court has expressed clear bias, refusing me evidence and witnesses. In one case, I was denied entry to the Courtroom, found guilty via email. The Magistrates Commission failed to act on my complaint that involves many questionable circumstances. The DA has been allowed to abuse the Protection from Harassment Act as a cheap gag order. Truth in the Public interest, a valid defence, has been completely ignored. Judgements do not mention the DA and my evidence.

Seton and Edge are, in some manner, involved in almost all the court cases against me. DA leadership is aware of this. It can only be with their approval.

Notably, Advocate Julie Seton, who is married to ex-Deputy Mayor Esme Edge, is well known to the Court and friendly with its staff. Once, in Chambers, she was permitted to appear without an instructing attorney. On another occasion, when she failed to appear, her repetitive ‘instructing attorney’, Carl Jeppe, was clearly ignorant of the basics of the case. The Magistrate allowed his request for a postponement because he was defending a baby paedophile in another courtroom the same time.

Instead of investigating my complaint impartially, Ex-Cape Bar Chair Tanya Golden protected Advocate Julie Seton by attacking me via email. Golden had decided I had no evidence despite, for example, Seton being in obvious conflict of interest, and the evidence including her use of a fake psychiatric diagnosis of me for the purpose of propaganda and her submission to the Cape Bar. Golden acted alone, without a disciplinary panel. The Cape Bar failed to act on my complaint against Golden.

The DA threatened my readers and businesses if they dealt with me. In addition to emails and Facebook messages, Young posted that he would sue 200 people for R60-million. Seton and Edge tried to claim R1-million from a community activist in Mossel Bay who shared my book and called me a hero.

The DA’s use of litigation is only one tactic in their goal of creating fear for oppression

Note this 2013 screenshot of an email I received from Candace Myers. It’s important because of her inside knowledge. She was the wife of the Knysna DA Constituency Chair and was active herself. Here she is clearly warning and sympathising with me because of the DA’s negative intentions towards me. She expresses fear in the community.

NEXT COURT DATE, 9 NOVEMBER 2020

The Western Cape High Court ordered that I be imprisoned for 3 months for my contravention of an interdict granted to Esme Edge and Advocate Seton. My crime is publishing information in the Public interest.

I expect that term will be longer as I have committed to other contraventions to warn the Public, a consequence of Government’s failure to act,

The Court attempted to stop the publishing of my book, ‘Same Shit, Different Government’ which, as of this morning, despite lack of Media coverage, has been downloaded 2,776 times (pdf, mobi & epub). This weekend, I will upload the new edition with links to more evidence.

The Court also ordered that my website be removed. It did so without a copy of the book or website, and before my appearance to defend.

My request for rescission of judgement will be heard on 9 November 2020.

The KZN Legal Practice Council would not even provide me with an instructing attorney or advice, despite me living in KZN.

The Western Cape Legal Practice Council took 13 months to provide me with an attorney who pulled out one week before trial, and strangely only one working day after applying for an advocate and me requesting that she go on record as the server of address.

Before using a blatant lie to resign, Attorney Carol Speirs discovered that the High Court had filed my papers in the wrong place and thus it would not have been heard. That is another anomaly as I had contacted High Court Registrar Ruanne David many times. It was also déjà vu as the case files had gone missing in 2016, taken by a mysterious “blonde woman” that the Court did not investigate.

Additionally, David previously would not fulfil her possible role in insuring I had representation.

Western Cape LPC Director Frank Dorey will not discuss my complaint though one of his staff have said another attorney has been requested. It is only for his absence in leadership that I mention Speirs and David, something I expect will be held against me by the legal fraternity.

Although my papers request representation and protection of my address (for safety concerns), those are possible excuses for a Judge to deny my request for rescission. Emphasizing that catch-22 is the plaintiff, who has threatened my safety, objecting to my motion being heard because I have not provided my address.

I am a layman so, additionally, I had needed an attorney to compose a better motion.

As we are only 2 working days before trial, for which I am unrepresented and have no money to travel to (because the DA ensured I am poor), I must prepare for the worst. Consequently, and in the Public interest, I will release my affidavit this weekend.

There are no anti-SLAPP laws in South Africa. And, so far, there are no lawyers who believe in justice more than the DA. However, I have had at least 19 lawyers act against me in roles ranging from ‘prosecutor’ to server of address.

INTIMIDATION & PROPERTY DEVELOPERS

This weekend, I will also release a summary of the corruption with links to evidence. But I address the propagandists here too because it is important that the SLAPP be tied to them. It is part of the same conspiracy for intimidation.

The DA compiled a fake psychiatric diagnosis of me as a sociopath who is a danger to children, signed by ENT Dr Martin Young who was then a DA Councillor. That was used by Advocate Julie Seton against me, as part of her defence to my complaint to the Cape Bar that Chair Golden dismissed. Seton may have been a joint author of the ‘diagnosis’ as the file properties show her name. It was distributed online, via Facebook and email.

The social media campaign to discredit me lasted years. I have been falsely associated me with mental disorders, child abuse, a missing child and the destruction of Knysna’s economy.

The DA and their cronies used anonymous Facebook pages from which I identified several administrators, with at least 4 involved in court cases against me.

Knysna Knews is operated by the married couple, Edge and Seton. They share other people’s post to appear legitimate as a community news site. Their occasional original and substantive posts are about the DA and against the DA’s enemies.

Before I exposed them, Edge was shown favourably whilst it attacked me. It also attacked Susan Campbell after she appeared as my witness in a hearing of Parliament. It was on this page that SAPS Captain Dewald Kitching called for me to leave town. My complaint against him and others was acknowledged and then ignored by the Policing Complaints Commission.

After Hampton Factor was quickly banned by Facebook, Protecting Brand Knysna appeared. The name was misleading because I was its sole topic. It was the vilest of the pages. It renamed itself Wicked Knysna, a play on my ‘Wicked Mike’ nickname. Its administrators included Young, Allan and Hall, all involved in cases against me. I believe that there were more accomplices.

‘AngryMike’, another play on my name, posted 470 tweets and 130 related tweets against me over 2 weeks before being banned. Again, there were likely several likely administrators but the one I identified was Martin Hatchuel, a copywriter previously contracted to Knysna Tourism and Knysna Municipality. Another copywriter, Ashley Barnes, was a vigorous participant.

Young used his doctor’s page.

The DA’s Facebook page was used too. They keep their administrators anonymous, but it was discovered, retroactively, that Martin Young was one of them. It is rumoured that Seton is a current administrator. She is the most active in the comment section and on other pages defending or promoting the DA as by-elections approach.

The Knysna Municipality and Knysna-Plett Herald newspaper’s comment sections were similarly abused with little to no moderation despite my protests.

The Municipality published press releases against me. One of those was sent to a publication by Martin Hatchuel before appearing on the Municipality’s website. That indicates that he was the author and a propagandist with free reign. Manager Communications Christopher Bezuidenhout refused to answer my queries.

The Knysna-Plett Herald published letters and unfavourable articles without allowing me right of reply. The newspaper ignored most of the evidence I sent them for years. A new editor, Ingrid Erlank, who began publishing critical articles of the Municipality, was soon pushed out after the Municipality withdrew its advertising. Her front-page article about Knysna Tourism and a related death threat was pulled after the deadline, the issue distributed hours late.

Highlighted commentators on all the pages were Edge, Seton, Hall, Allan, Hatchuel, Barnes and Mark Beard, a businessman rumoured to have been a donor to the DA. Others included politicians and municipal staff involved in the corruption or having failed to act on my reporting of it.

Seton allied with Jaco Dercksen, a spammer and fraudster I exposed years earlier. She gave him my father’s address which he posted online. He stated that I was a fugitive and offered a reward for my capture. Seton threatened to have my father arrested.

Despite no SAPS warrant, an ex-school mate was approached by two intimidating, plain-clothed policemen looking for me.

A private investigator, hired by Seton and Edge, implied to my father that I would be killed. Disturbingly, he was accompanied by police after the Sheriff of the Court, who never bother to simply email me, mysteriously claimed to have spent 3 hours at my father’s gate before they entered.

I have treated the threat seriously because the DA has shown it is willing to act dirty. I’ve had no social life since. I have not visited acquaintances or made new ones. I keep to myself.

Additionally, Velile Waxa, the DA’s coalition partner and two collaborators, were convicted for the 2018 assassination of ANC Chief Whip Victor Molosi. In December 2019, I testified against Waxa, the mastermind. I provided his motive.

It is unknown who funded the assassination, and who paid Waxa’s expensive High Court legal fees for one year. That included Waxa’s legal attempt to remain Councillor during the proceedings. His attorney, who well knew my fight against corruption, previously denied my pro bono request.

There is no proof, but it is rumoured that property developers funded Waxa. It heightens my awareness because, along with Susan Campbell who provided food and drinks to the Public gallery throughout the trial, I am the most hated by a faction of unscrupulous property developers in Knysna. They are arguably a major source of political disruption that the DA is linked to.

THE BOSSES AND THEIR ALLIES

Helen Zille and the DA Federal Executive have long been aware of the corruption, including the attack against me. Zille has met me twice, received many emails from me and previously had a lawyer threaten me. However, on Twitter last year, she pretended distance and attempted to discredit me as a looney conspiracy theorist.

It is undeniable that the DA’s leadership is implicated through the Prevention and Combating of Corrupt Activities Act 12 of 2004 (PRECCA). If justice did its job, many would go to jail. It would be the end of the DA in the form we know it as.

DA management has favoured several crooked people. The biggest examples are Eleanore Spies, Anton Bredell, Alan Winde and Michelle Wasserman.

ELEANORE SPIES

The De Swardt Vogel & Myambo investigation shows fraud by Spies. The Hawks never interviewed me even though a main part of the case was Spies using Public funds for lawyers to threaten me, and her backdating a R1-million payment to Knysna Tourism.

The DA never needed the Hawks and the NPA to act against Spies. They could have booted her and sued her. Instead, they promoted her to Speaker of the District and then to the National Assembly.

ANTON BREDELL

I exposed the recording of Anton Bredell plotting the overthrow of Oudtshoorn through illegal means. Conspicuously, Spies is Oudtshoorn’s Constituency Officer.

I publicised Treasury’s investigation into the illegal ISDF tender that Susan Campbell obtained, the one Bredell had hidden and defied to favour a property developers’ consortium on Thesen Islands in Knysna.

This past weekend, at the DA’s elective conference, Bredell was made one of the DA’s 3 Federal Deputy Chairs.

ALAN WINDE

Alan Winde was MEC Tourism, He was aware of the illegal funding mechanism being used to pay Section 21 companies across the Western Cape. After saying he would provide me with a copy of the recording of our meeting, he refused to give it to me.

He has publicly defended Bredell’s sedition in Oudtshoorn this year.

Like Bredell, Winde was firmly in Helen Zille’s political camp when she was Premier. Winde was preordained as Premier, many months before the DA’s internal elections.

MICHELLE WASSERMAN

Michelle Wasserman was Knysna’s DA Speaker until she quit in 2015. In 2019, the DA returned her from nowhere as a PR councillor. They immediately named her their Mayoral Candidate whilst they sought to get rid of their own Mayor Mark Willemse who had voted with his conscience against Spies after the DA’s leadership had ignored his complaint against her.

In 2011, Wasserman, Edge and Wolmarans were the first to block me regarding Knysna Tourism’s illegal funding. She was also there for many of my complaints, including the ISDF tender and corrupt Municipal Manager Grant Easton.

Wasserman recently favoured property developers on Thesen Islands. Last week, her angle was blocked. The consequences will eventually cost those property developers millions for illegal deviations they carried out under an illegal organisation that was dealing with a corrupt municipal official in the Planning Department.

If the DA wins Wards 9 and 10 in the by-elections to be held on 11 November, Wasserman will likely become Mayor.

Sohn & Attorneys, owned by Attorney Richard Sohn, is based on Thesen Islands. They represent Edge against me. Advocate Seton, Edge’s married partner, works for them. Attorney Jacqui Sohn is their server of address in Cape Town. Will the Sohns attack anyone else for the benefit of the DA?

The Municipality and Council kicked Campbell and Planning Director Marlene Boyce off the Knysna Municipal Planning Tribunal. One replacement was Lindile Petuna, a man followed by scandals from Port Elizabeth. He was hired as Knysna’s Human Settlements Manager after departing Nelson Mandela Bay Municipality during a disciplinary hearing. On 29 October 2020, the Court fined him R550,000 for his role in misleading his former employers regarding a deal favouring a luxury property development.

Seton was previously secretary of Knysna Municipality’s Planning Tribunal. It is rumoured that she was given the job without it being tendered.

CORRUPTION IS NOT LONELY

The DA is not alone in corruption.

The ANC, ACDP and COPE have long failed to act on my complaints.

Recently, I reported the capture of the Financial Department of the Knysna Municipality. New COPE Mayor Elrick van Aswegen and Acting Municipal Manager Louis Scheepers, who was deployed by the ANC, refused to accept my complaints.

Van Aswegen misled a session of COGTA.

Scheepers and other directors have allegedly been given expensive seaside accommodation at R4,000-5,000 rentals. 3 municipal houses were appropriated as “safe houses” for politicians. Several houses were sold way below their value, one to a municipal employee.

All parties chose to write-off R93-million in illegal expenditure that included a large contract for overpriced water meters.

Deputy Mayor Aubrey Tsengwa (ANC) is implicated in alleged corruption with CFO Mbulelo Memani who was given special permission to immediately quit on 13 October 2020 after he had been protected by all parties for 7 months.

'Same Shit, Different Government' pdf (2410 downloads)

THE FAILURE OF RESPONSIBILITY

There is no guarantee that the SIU will act as several National Government agencies have previously failed to do so in suspicious circumstances.

The Western Cape Office of the Public Protector and the Hawks are involved in the cover-up. They have whitewashed their reports, excluding the intimidation and investigations by the Auditor General and Treasury. My complaints to Public Protector Busisiwe Mkhwebane, Minister Police Bheki Cele and Hawks Head General Godfrey Lebeya have been ignored.

NCOP held 3 hearings, leaving it unfinished the past 2 years.

Mainstream Media gave their support by simply not reporting, an absence that would never have happened if the same crimes had been committed by, for example, the ANC.

IMPLICATED

I believe in truth and justice which is why I am breaking several court orders to publish this.

Orders against me are not a valid excuse for Media to not fulfil their important accountability role.

Corruption is the war against our country. Lawyers standing on the sidelines are inexcusable.

I have had too many horrible things happen to me. I no longer hope that anyone paid to protect us has integrity. My main reason for this press release (and the posts that will follow) is for the historical record.

If the Court denies me a fair trial on Monday, and if no legal options are available the same week, I will arrange my arrest this month so that I can return to hunger strike in Government’s hands.

My first demand will be for President Cyril Ramaphosa and Minister Justice Ronald Lamola to explain why the ANC-led Government has knowingly allowed DA criminals to act against me and the Public interest. Why has the DA been immensely favoured?

Readers can comment on Facebook.

Mike Hampton

Contact:

• Mike Hampton: words@themikehampton.com
• COGTA Spokesperson Sureshinee Govender – sugovender@parliament.gov.za
• SIU Spokesperson Kaizer Kganyago – 082 306 8888
• Knysna Ratepayers’ Association Chair Susan Campbell – sucam@mweb.co.za
• Helen Zille – fedexchair@da.org.za
• Alan Winde – Alan.Winde@westerncape.gov.za
• South African Human Rights Commission – tcarter@sahrc.org.za
• Advocate Julie Seton – 082 778 8396
• Attorney Richard Sohn – richard@sohn.co.za

I am fully aware that more people may sue me now. It does not matter. The situation is appalling, tens of thousands of lives are affected yet there is a never-ending queue of outrageous people without integrity. I see my death more than I see hope. In a lawless society, those who have done wrong must at least be remembered. The Public must be warned.