At the height of lockdown, when Bitou residents were anxiously wondering where their next meal was coming from, the Council decided to play Lady Bountiful. The Mayor would receive, free gratis and for nothing, a luxury limo to cruise as he chooses. On top of this – sort of doubling down by doubling up - his

OUTRAGE OVER MAYOR'S CAR Correspondent Yolandé Stander | Thursday, 23 July 2020, 09:12  PLETTENBERG BAY NEWS - Bitou mayor Peter Lobese has come under fire yet again for splashing out on a luxury vehicle after it came to light that that the majority of council voted to spend R700 000 on a three-year lease for a new

14 July 2020 Dear Municipal Manager, We noted in the Potential Irregular Expenditure Report tabled on 30 June 2020, that over R2 million of legal services was raised as possibly irregular in the January - March 2020 period. The law firms are listed below. Will you please: provide details of what legal matters each of these

Dear Members, Sometimes in life there are difficult decisions to take and it is not always easy to pick the correct one.  But at other times it is really really easy and the correct decision is very obvious. In June, the Bitou councillors, in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, were faced with two

We have launched an application to interdict the excessive salaries of the top six municipal officials: Municipal Manager Lonwabo Ngoqo, CFO Mkhefa, HOD Engineering Rhode, HOD Community Services Sompani, HOD Strategic Services Friedman and Acting HOD of Corporate Services Groenewald.  We are asking the Labour Court to recover their past excess salaries, as well

Dear Members, The COVID pandemic has challenged the activities of the Plett Ratepayers' Association, but on the litigation front, we continue to work hard.  In spite of the lockdown, we remain focused and are redoubling our efforts to prevent  fruitless and wasteful expenditure from gobbling up a large proportion of municipal revenue, especially in light of the

13 May 2020 Dear Mayor Lobese, Can you please explain to us the delay in demolishing the derelict and illegal structure on ERF 156 below Signal Hill, which is unsafe, an eyesore, and is negatively affecting property values around it?  We have heard from the Planning Department that the delay is with the mayor's

29 April 2020 Dear Members, The Plett Ratepayers' Oversight Report of the draft Bitou 2020-21 Budget is below.  We are very concerned that it does not reflect the current economic environment, does not provide for maintenance and expansion of our aging infrastructure, and includes massive non-essential expenditure. We have forwarded our concerns to Mayor

15 April 2020 To: Mayor Lobese; Cllr Gcabayi; Cllr Mbali; Cllr Wildeman; Cllr Swart; Cllr Nel; Cllr Windvogel; Cllr Kamkam; Cllr Matyila; Cllr Olivier; Cllr Seyisi; Cllr Ndayi; Cllr Jacob By email Dear Sir or Madam UNLAWFUL OVERPAYMENT OF REMUNERATION OF SENIOR MUNICIPAL OFFICIALS The maximum remuneration payable by a municipality to a senior official

Bitou Municipality announced on 26 March that they "resolved to unblock all prepaid electricity meters" during the lockdown.  The Plett Ratepayers' queried this and received a response from CFO Mkhefa on 3 April that it does not include the practice of shortchanging prepaid electricity consumers on their purchases. Since Mr. Mkhefa's letter was marked Personal,