JOHANNESBURG – AT 24 years old the ANC’s Chad Louw has become the Western Cape’s youngest mayor after he was elected at the Oudtshoorn municipality on Wednesday afternoon.
The municipality formed a coalition government between the ANC, who won eight out of the council’s 25 seats, the Independent Civic Organisation of South Africa (ICOSA) at two seats, and Oudtshoorn Gemenskaaps Inisiatief (OGI) with one seat.
Sylvester was the DA’s mayor when the party was in control of the municipality in the previous administration before he resigned in June last year in the midst of a lengthy disciplinary process with his former party. One of the charges against Sylvester was allegedly “creating a toxic work environment“. And just weeks before the elections, the DA lost control of the municipality to an ANC and ICOSA coalition.
Just 200 kilometers away from Oudtshoorn, the financially distressed Beaufort West municipality also held its own council meeting to elect an executive after a coalition agreement was formed.
Constable had been mayor of the town right up until June before he resigned in the wake of allegations of mismanagement at the municipality.
Constable is also a co-accused in a corruption case involving two other ANC members over tender irregularities.
“Service delivery is important and doing away with cadre deployment to ensure the municipality works,” he said.
Three months ago the municipality adopted a financial recovery plan from the provincial government. It was among four other municipalities in the province that owe Eskom R125 Million and was the only municipality in the province to receive a disclaimed audit outcome from the 2019/2020 audit report.
