Action Society has sent a formal request to the speaker of the Kannaland Council, Peter-George Rooi and the MEC for local government in the Western Cape, Anton Bredell, about the reinstatement of Jeffrey Donson as the mayor.
In 2008 while employed as Kannaland’s mayor, Donson was convicted of statutory rape and indecent assault of a 15-year-old girl in 2004. As a result, he was removed as mayor in January this year, but after a vote of no confidence against the new mayor, the deputy mayor and municipal manager, again became mayor in October. Werner Meshoa – also ousted in January for fraud and fired from his previous job as a teacher for sexual misconduct with a pupil – was re-appointed as deputy mayor.
“It is utterly regrettable and a slap in the face of thousands of victims of gender-based violence that they are allowed to hold such a high office despite their abhorrent criminal pasts,” said Kaylynn Palm, Action Centre coordinator at Action Society. “It is also a direct contradiction to the government’s condemnation and widely proclaimed efforts to eliminate crime, especially in the form of gender-based violence.”
Action Society requested the speaker indicate his office’s actions to remedy the situation by 14 December 2022.
