ANC alleges irregular appointments in Bitou

On October 16th, 2025, the ANC, led by Chief Whip Samkele Mangxaba, demanded clarity on what it calls “questionable” decisions, namely the case of Felix Lotter, a former chief financial officer (CFO). Lotter reportedly pocketed a severance package nearing R900,000 before being rehired as Manager for Government and Compliance, implying that the move was a way of handing Lotter an illicit payout.

The ANC’s probe targets recent organogram changes that created new senior posts, potentially enabling patronage in a council where smaller coalition partners have switched twice between the ANC and DA. With irregular expenditure exceeding R1bn in recent years, Bitou’s service delivery has suffered, while rates have increased by nearly 40% in the past five years.

The DA-led administration, under Mayor Jessica Kamkam, has yet to respond publicly, but the controversy risks deepening the municipality’s long-standing reputation for mismanagement. As our report from last year demonstrated, the DA has a long history of encouraging illicit pilfering of public funds, with full knowledge of top party officials, and protecting, even promoting, complicit parties.

In July 2025, opposition parties, including the ANC, PA, and People’s Democratic Congress (PDC), called for the suspension of Municipal Manager Mbulelo Memani. They accused him of corruption, including an R800,000 proxy payment to settle debts and contempt of a 2024 court order mandating repayment of a R4.2m unlawful severance package, later reduced to R1.9m without clear justification. Memani, appointed in 2022 despite unresolved disciplinary issues from his prior role in Knysna, also faced allegations of creating unadvertised posts, such as one for Allen Paulse, bypassing competitive recruitment.

The Lotter case echoes earlier scandals. In April 2025, the Plettenberg Bay Ratepayers Association questioned the pending CFO appointment of Christopher Mapeyi, citing his history of alleged maladministration in the Chris Hani District. A decade ago, former Municipal Manager Lonwabo Ngoqo was dismissed in 2012 for a R23m land scam, only to be unlawfully rehired in 2019 by an ANC-led coalition. Court battles, culminating in a 2021 Constitutional Court dismissal, cost millions and publicised Bitou’s “revolving door” for tainted officials. More recently, a 2024 housing contract worth R38m was cancelled after bribery allegations, and an Independent People’s Movement petition sought provincial administration.

The Municipal Systems Act mandates transparent, competitive hiring, but Bitou’s track record suggests otherwise, and show that the ANC isn’t the only party protecting its cadres. The rehiring of figures like Lotter, coupled with golden handshakes, flouts regulations and drains budgets already stretched by legal fees and service delivery failures. The municipality’s clean audit status, achieved in 2013-14, has long vanished, with the Auditor-General flagging persistent irregularities.

Recent interventions by Western Cape MEC Anton Bredell have been frequent but ineffective, and have only come after public pressure – Bredell has been aware of these irregularities for at least a decade. Despite court rulings and forensic audits, enforcement lags, and Bitou remains on the brink of Section 139 administration, which would place it under direct provincial control.

The ANC’s latest push may force a reckoning, potentially triggering investigations by the Hawks or further audits – the Hawks have already been forced to call up Bredell to ask why he had done neglected to deal with older corruption cases. But with so many larger and higher-profile corruption cases at the national level, small-town graft in the Western Cape is low on the justice system’s list of priorities.

Yet, with the DA-led coalition and ANC trading accusations, the population of Plettenburg Bay is increasingly disaffected.