Cape Town - Outraged Ladismith residents disrupted a sitting of the Kannaland municipal council after the resignation of the town's municipal manager, Morne Hoogbaard.
Opposition party in the municipality, Icosa, blamed the DA-ANC coalition leadership for forcing Hoogbaard to resign with immediate effect before the first council sitting.
Speaker Aletta Theron, from the DA, announced his departure at the start of the first council meeting on Tuesday.
Icosa leader Jeffrey Donson accused Theron and ANC mayor Magdalena Barry of pushing Hoogbaard, whose contract expires at the end of next month, to resign or face being suspended.
On Tuesday, residents disrupted the Kannaland municipality's council meeting to show their disapproval.
"People were upset and angry. The DA and ANC have clearly interfered in the administration by approaching an official and forcing him to resign," Donson said.
He called for an investigation into Hoogbaard's resignation before an acting municipal manager is appointed.
Donson also criticised the speaker for failing to control the meeting, in which community members refused to leave."There were no fights but people were loud and vocal in their disapproval," he said. In turn, Theron said Icosa members were out of hand and the meeting could not continue.
"We appointed an acting municipal manager and the meeting became unmanageable. We could not resume the business of the day and the council meeting had to be postponed till next week," she said.
Theron said after the meeting, Icosa supporters who had gathered outside the municipality, continued to hurl insults and threats at her.
"They threatened to kill me and police had to take me away," she said. Hoogbaard would not be drawn on the reasons behind his resignation, but said he was "fed-up with political interference in municipal matters".
"I am seriously worried about the future of the Kannaland municipality. These perceptions raised by politicians that officials here are corrupt are nothing but lies. Even the auditor-general has confirmed that there is no corruption or issues of fraud in the municipalities, but still they are targeting Kannaland."
Hoogbaard said the newly elected leadership didn't appreciate the strides that Kannaland had made regarding service delivery.
DA MP and constituency head for Kannaland, Zelda Jongbloed confirmed that Hoogbaard was requested to leave office.
"The CFO Nigel Delo is acting MM. Hoogbaards's contract would have ended anyway at the end of September. It would have been impossible for any new government to work with somebody who played such a key role in the Donson administration."
While the DA and ANC in Kannaland both agreed that their working arrangement was intact, despite no formal agreement being signed, sources within the ANC revealed that the party's provincial leadership was meeting Icosa in George.
Cape Argus