The Democratic Alliance (DA) in Oudtshoorn can confirm that the Executive Mayor of Oudtshoorn, Mr Colan Sylvester, resigned yesterday amidst his disciplinary hearing. He will vacate his office at the end of June 2020.
The matter of Mr Sylvester has been looming for over a year. There were several charges against him and it is clear that Mr Sylvester’s resignation follows his conviction and he took off before the Party could act on his misconduct.
These charges included the following:
- deliberate attempts to frustrate the Municipal Manager’s (MM) efforts to exercise financial restraint;
- endeavours to prevent the MM from achieving financial stability and cohesion in the Oudtshoorn Municipality;
- creating a toxic work environment in which lines of communication and trust were destroyed, affecting the MM’s work performance, health and personal life;
- continued failure to lead as mayor and bring about cohesion and co-operation between politicians and officials in the Municipality;
- causing division within the DA Oudtshoorn Caucus resulting in losing four DA wards in the 2019 local elections;
- convening of several private caucus meetings and deliberately excluding certain members;
- exclusionist, obstructive and divisive conduct in relation to officials and councillors, with regards to both governance within the Municipality and failure to follow the correct procedure regarding the appointment of service providers and the expenditure of Municipal Funds;
- creating an atmosphere of divisiveness, friction and distrust within the MM’s office by ignoring legislation pertaining to Local Government;
- contravening the Party’s Constitution by being averse to authority, interfering in the administration of the Municipality, and encouraging Mayoral Committee Members to do the same;
- interfering in and refusal to participate in various Municipal projects; and
- failing to deal with overstaffing in the Department of Strategic Services through irregular and improper protective measures.
The DA has been trying to conclude this matter with Mr Sylvester for several months, who, on various occasions, tried to postpone the matter.
Oudtshoorn has been suffering under this uncertainty and instability for the past two years and as the DA in Oudtshoorn, we welcome the opportunity to rebuild what was broken.
We look forward to renewal and change, and the opportunity to return to an environment of accountability and effective leadership.
Click here to contribute to the DA’s legal action challenging irrational and dangerous elements of the hard lockdown in court