Quinton Mtyala
A SENIOR DA councillor faces suspension, the possibility of being kicked out of the party and losing his council seat for failing to declare his involvement in the Trojan Horse massacre over 30 years ago.
Sam Pienaar, then known as Salmon Pienaar, was a commander of the civilian defence SA Defence Force unit on the Cape Flats and was part of the planning of the operation in which three youngsters were shot and killed in Thornton Road, Athlone, on October 15, 1985; and two more in Crossroads on October 16, by railway police hiding in crates on the back of a flatbed South African Railways truck.
Last night, the DA’s Western Cape spokesperson, Liza Albrecht, said Pienaar had been served with a letter notifying him of the party’s intention to suspend him and had been given until 5pm to give reasons in writing why he should not be suspended.
“The provincial executive committee will consider those reasons he has provided and if they find them insufficient, then they will suspend him formally,” said Albrecht.
Pienaar, 73, will then be subjected to a party disciplinary hearing.
Albrecht said the party’s leadership believed Pienaar had not been forthcoming during his interviews, which eventually saw him being picked for a place on the DA’s proportional representative list for the City of Cape Town in 2011.
In June last year, he was promoted from an ordinary councillor to chairperson of subcouncil 6 (Bellville, Belhar, Bellville South), which came with an increased salary of around R800 000 per annum.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission had found that the officers involved in planning the operation had been responsible for human rights abuses, although Pienaar was not prosecuted for his part. He insisted in testimony that as a soldier, he was protecting the state against violent revolutionaries.
Albrecht said any formal disciplinary process would happen as soon as possible, which would ultimately decide if any punishment should be meted out to him.