OUR municipal manager Dr Kabanyane, as a seasoned politician, must know that in a court of law one is presumed innocent until proven guilty.
However in the court of the public opinion you are guilty until proven innocent - the adage “no smoke without a fire” applies.
Having entered the court of public opinion of his own free will, with his self-congratulatory advertisement about the civic centre upgrading (no doubt paid for with ratepayers’ money) it is up to him to defend himself in this arena.
Dr Kabanyane is right. The World Cup was an unparallelled success and cynics must admit, as I do, that they were wrong.
This said, the Drakenstein Municipality had little or nothing to do with the organisation of the World Cup and yet are reported to have spent huge amounts of money. An amount of R33 000 000 is being bandied about. Enough to build 500 houses?
If this is true, then public viewing and street flags came at an unbelievable cost - money ratepayers can ill afford and houses the poor desperately need.
Accusing others of lying will not do. It is now appropriate to produce verifiable facts.
What money was spent? Where was the money spent? Who was entertained? Who went overseas? What did they achieve? Where did the money come from? What financial benefits were achieved?
It is in Dr Kabanyane’s power to publish the information neccesary to put an end to these rumours, from which no-one benefits.
In the absence of this information he risks being labelled a self indulgent fat cat who allowed the municipal coffers to be plundered by greedy officials.
L Roberts
