The Stellenbosch Municipality acting director of corporate services, Alexander Kannemeyer, has until this Friday, 12 September, to explain to the municipal council why he should not be suspended.
This is according to executive mayor Jeremy Fasser, who told SMF News that Kannemeyer had to submit his representation as to why he should not be suspended to the council within seven days, after an urgent council meeting at the Stellenbosch municipal building on 5 September.
The meeting was held to consider two motions proposed by the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the GOOD party for the removal of Kannemeyer from his position. SMF News was in attendance.
Inside the Stellenbosch municipal building, where an urgent council meeting was held on 5 September. PHOTO: Jared Moorgas
The DA amended its motion, requesting that Kannemeyer be suspended instead, pending an independent investigation into his conduct. In terms of this amendment, which garnered 27 votes and was supported by the majority of council members, Kannemeyer was given seven days to respond.
‘We get what we want’
This comes after a 2023 video recording of what appears to be an internal meeting was leaked on 2 September, and shared widely on the internet and social media platforms.
“I cannot support the fact that we every time appoint the best-scoring candidate, and it is always the white male,” Kannemeyer, who was a senior manager in human resources (HR) at the time, appears to be saying in the video. “I am saying, we make life difficult for the person who came in, the person resigns, and, afterwards, we get what we want.”
“We believe a man or person with that mindset being in charge of an HR department can be very dangerous,” said councillor Otniel Jooste, from the African Christian Democratic Party, in an interview with SMF News after the council meeting.
When SMF News contacted Kannemeyer on his office phone number on 8 September, he said that he was not able to provide comment at this time.
“I’m not allowed to give any comment on the current incident,” said Kannemeyer. “It’s against my contract conditions. As you already know, obviously, I am in trouble, so I’m not going to give any comment.”
An urgent municipal council meeting was held on 5 September, in which 41 council members were in attendance, according to Quintin Smit, speaker for the Stellenbosch municipal council. PHOTO: Jared Moorgas
‘Come back to bite us’
During the council meeting, the African National Congress (ANC) caucus was against the DA’s motion and councillor Jacobus Davids said that the council must be cautious in setting precedents that could “come back to bite us”.
Monwabisi Rataza, spokesperson for the ANC caucus, told SMF News after the meeting that the party questioned why the DA did not attend to the matter two years ago.
“The leakage of the video provoked [the DA] to take action, but I believe they did not take accountability,” said Jooste. “They did not take action when it needed to be [taken].”
“The DA was not aware of the video when it was filmed in 2023,” said Willie Aucamp, national spokesperson for the DA, in correspondence with SMF News. “We only became aware of it when it was recently distributed via social media. We could therefore not take action previously due to the fact that we were not aware of its existence.”
Stellenbosch municipal councillors outside the municipal building on 5 September, after an urgent council meeting was held. From left to right: Monwabisi Rataza, caucus spokesperson for the African National Congress, Lwando Nkamisa, Democratic Alliance ward councillor, and Ndipiwe Olayi, councillor for sport, youth, and culture. PHOTO: Jared Moorgas
‘Internal investigation’
When asked whether the municipality knew about the video before it was leaked last week, Stuart Grobbelaar, communications manager for Stellenbosch Municipality, told SMF News via correspondence that “an internal investigation took place in 2023” after a staff member requested “to have the matter looked into”.
However, he said that it is “not practical to equate the knowledge or actions of one or two individuals with the knowledge of the institution as a whole”.
“It would be disingenuous to suggest that ‘the municipality’ as a whole either knew or did not know about such a matter,” said Grobbelaar.