Artcile raises DA hackles

Piet Liebenberg
AN apparent incorrect article that appeared in two free local newspapers last week has raised the hackles of DA councillors.
According to the DA, the article incorrectly declared that the Kouga municipal budget for 2012/2013 was approved by council, but the leader of the DA in the Kouga, Chimpie Cawood, has dubbed it an April Fools' joke and asks if it was handled on different planets?
He said although the draft Kouga municipal budget was discussed last week, newspaper reports appeared on the outcome of the meeting, presumably based on information supplied by the ANC regime in the Kouga which, according to him, have no bearing on what actually occurred.
"The reports are so far from what transpired in council they must surely be an April fools' joke since they do not reflect the debate that took place in the Kouga Council Chambers,” he said.
However, municipal spokesman Laura-Leigh Randall said: "The municipality stands by the media release, which was issued after the meeting at which the draft budget was adopted.”
Randall indicated that both the article and headline clearly state that it was the "draft budget” that was approved.
In reference to a proposed workshop where the budget will be discussed, Randal said: "For the workshop and public meetings to take place, there must be an official working document. This is why legislation requires that council first adopts a ‘draft budget', so that there is an officially-sanctioned working document.”
In reference to the recent news that the municipality was rated as the least financially sustainable of all the larger municipalities in South Africa, the auditor general's recent disclaimer for the municipality and the Kouga mayor's own admission of their dire financial position, Cawood said: "The budget before council, was unsurprisingly a carbon copy of last year's unrealistic budget, with only the figures updated. The very same budget caned by the AG and which Kouga itself admits as being flawed. Regrettably there was no evidence of any real effort to address the severe shortcomings referred to above.”
MP for Kouga, Elza van Lingen said: "I support the DA proposal for a workshop before approval of the draft budget. Too often in the past proposals and preconditions by the DA before acceptance of the budget have been ignored by the ANC. This workshop should happen before the public participation meetings are held in each ward. Kouga council has its back to the wall and it is essential the governing party should now listen to reason before destroying Kouga completely.”