Two councillors lose their seats
2007-09-20
May Saal
A SPECIAL council meeting will be held at the Town Hall in Wellington tomorrow at 10:00, where a new mayor and other office bearers will be elected.
This follows the end of the floor crossing window, during which the African National Congress (ANC) gained a straight majority of 31 in the 61 member Drakenstein Municipal Council, allowing them to wrest political control from the DA coalition.
Presumably the previous mayor, Charmaine Manuel (ANC), will be re-elected, and Wilhelm Nothnagel (who defected from the ID to the ANC) will keep his position as deputy mayor.
One of the floor crossers to the ANC is councillor Sharon Davids ( FD).
Another five councillors, all ID mayoral executive committee members, also defected to the ANC.
They are Nothnagel, Marthinus le Hoe, Thulani Kompela, Harisha Douman and Claude Julies.
Philmon Maxam,. who was expected to defect to the ANC, was suspended by his party (WCC) and has lost his councillorship.
Maxam is replaced by Eleanore Basson of the WCC leaving the WCC with two councillors.
Meanwhile another three ID councillors have defected to the new National People’s Party (NPP).
They are Joseph (Warie) Appolis, William (André) Petersen and Bazil Vos.This leaves the NPP with three seats in Drakenstein.
Jackie Noland (ID) who had also indicated that she would join the NPP, was suspended timeously by the ID, and is replaced by Stephen Christopher Jochims of Saron. The ID removed her from the deputy mayorship a year ago.
This leaves the ID with three councillors at Drakenstein: Billy Ross, Conrad Poole and Jochims.
Another local defector to the ANC is Conwal du Plessis (previously ID councillor) in the Cape Winelands District Council.
Nobody from the DA crossed the floor and this party retains its 20 seats in Drakenstein.
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