Motion of no confidence against Knysna mayor Aubrey Tsengwa lapses

Aubrey Tsengwa is still the mayor of Knysna Municipality following a lapsed motion of no confidence during a council meeting on Thursday.

The motion lapsed when Susan Campbell, a councillor for the Knysna Independent Movement (KIM) — the mover of the motion — was not there when the motion was called. The mover of a motion must be there to explain the motion before the council, said the municipality’s legal team.

Campbell had proposed the motion, alleging there was an improper relationship between the mayor and a local business. The allegation, as Daily Maverick reported, had to be removed from KIM’s Facebook page following the business’s claims that it was defamatory.

It was one of two motions against the council leadership. The DA plans to put forward a motion, which is still to be tabled and heard in council, to dissolve the entire council.

Read more: DA calls for Knysna council to be dissolved and new elections to be held

Council Speaker Mncedisi Skosana told the council that Campbell, who attended the meeting virtually, “ran away… she was on and off”.

Skosana said he had to apply the advice from the municipality’s legal team to allow the motion to lapse. Shortly after this, the meeting was adjourned.

On Thursday, Campbell told Daily Maverick she could not hear when the motion was raised. She said she had experienced technical difficulties throughout the council meeting.

“I can submit [it] again,” she said.

Coalition politics

Knysna’s 21-seat council was one of 16 hung councils after the 2021 municipal elections. The DA has eight seats, the ANC has seven, KIM and the Patriotic Alliance (PA) each have two and the Plaaslike Besorgde Inwoners (PBI) and the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF) have one seat each.

The municipality has been governed by both a DA-led coalition and the current ANC-led coalition. After the 2021 municipal elections, the municipality was governed by a DA-KIM coalition. Then in August 2022, the coalition was removed from power in favour of an ANC-PA-PBI coalition.

Read more: ‘When two elephants fight, it’s the grass that suffers — and Knysna is the grass’

The Garden Route municipality made headlines in 2023 after a collapse of water and environmental infrastructure led to an intervention by the provincial government.

In March, the municipality adopted a support plan put together by it and the provincial government. A 109-page diagnostic report highlighted issues including a communication breakdown between councillors and the community, water and financial issues and infrastructure problems.

On 13 August, the municipality said progress had been made in some areas. These included the creation of communication strategies and filling vacancies. It said there would be workshops on anti-corruption, fraud and ethics for councillors and municipal officials.

Previously, a combination of service delivery and governance issues led to ActionSA’s Julie Lopes — a former DA councillor — to call for the municipality to be placed under administration. DM