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Allegations of political interference around the appointment of Marius Fransman’s brother-in-law to a senior municipal position were yesterday rejected by the ANC in the Overberg.
The name of the Western Cape ANC leader is mentioned in court documents that allege that senior members of the party interfered in the appointment of the municipal manager for the Cape Agulhas municipality in 2013.
The application to have the appointment of Fransman’s brother-in-law, Dean O’Neill, set aside will be heard in the Western Cape High Court on January 27.
The municipality and the council have rejected the accusations of political interference.
Speaking to Media 24, Themba Tebele, ANC regional secretary in the Overberg, said people did not understand how ANC processes work.
“The ANC has its own processes. We do not abandon our comrades who are deployed and we guide them. If that means interference then I do not know.”
According to court documents, the applicant Reynold Stevens, who was the former municipal manager, was the preferred candidate. In his affidavit, he said: “The only inference to be drawn is that this fact [it being Fransman’s brother-in-law] played the most important role in his appointment at my expense.”
The municipality denied the allegations of political interference in documents before the court.
“That fact [that it is Fransman’s brother-in-law] is irrelevant to his appointment as municipal manger,” the municipality maintains in court papers.
“The fourth respondent’s [O’Neill] family relationships played no role in him being appointed.”
According to Stevens’s affidavits, a day before his appointment was to be approved by the council, the executive mayor handed the consultants’ report on the selection process of candidates to the ANC regional secretary.
Tebele dismissed media reports about the court process as “a deliberate attempt to let the ANC fail in the elections ... We understand that it is not outside forces but forces inside the ANC. We will act against them. We know who they are.”
According to Tebele, the ANC would only stand a chance in the upcoming local government elections if it was united.
“There are people who do not sleep. They are plotting to get rid of comrade Marius but they forget that Marius is not the ANC. If you do such things, it is the ANC that bleeds.”
According to Tebele, he didn’t believe that the court case would influence the party’s chances of retaining the municipality in the elections.
“We plan to win the municipality outright.”
Cape Agulhas is the only municipality that the ANC controls in the Overberg.
