ANC Calls on DA to Suspend Garden Route Mayor After Trip to Indonesia

The ANC in the Western Cape has called on the DA to immediately suspend Memory Booysen – Mayor of the Garden Route District Municipality – for accepting an all-expenses paid trip to Indonesia.

According to reports, Booysen visited Indonesia with the parent company of a German firm that has been given a controversial 50-year lease of a Calitzdorp property picking up the tab.

ANC Western Cape secretary Faiez Jacobs said in a statement that the ANC had been wondering who was involved in helping the German company get a lease of a property that is the focus of a land claim.

“Now we are beginning to connect the dots,” said Jacobs. “Memory Booysen gets a free trip and GRDM rides roughshod over a process that has not been completed. We want the South African Human Rights Commission to investigate this controversial lease and also call on the DA to suspend Booysen.

“If they don’t, they will show that all their talk of clean governance is just talk.”

He added: “We’re particularly concerned that the 50-year-old lease was not raised nor debated in the council. This is a complete undermining of the democratic process in local government.”