Cape Town - The re-election of rapist Jeffrey Donson as Kannaland mayor and fraudster Werner Meshoa as his deputy can best be described as a devastating blow to the country’s fight against gender-based violence.
The two were once again elected to occupy the higher echelons of the struggling Western Cape municipality having been booted from their executive posts earlier this year through a motion of no confidence.
How their party, the Independent Civic Organisation of SA (Icosa), continues to field them as the most suitable candidates for these positions is an indictment of how serious this organisation is in ridding itself and the municipality of criminals.
But they are not alone in resurrecting Donson and Meshoa’s political careers.
Their return last month was made possible by the Kannaland Independent Party (KIP) which entered into a coalition with Icosa to remove ANC mayor Nicolaas Valentyn and his deputy, Leoni Stuurman, at a council meeting.
Donson was convicted of statutory rape and indecent assault in 2008.
His victim was 15 years old. After lodging an appeal in the Western Cape High Court, his five-year sentence was reduced to a wholly suspended term of imprisonment, correctional supervision, a R20 000 fine, and a rehabilitation programme for sex offenders.
That was a travesty of justice.
The two will now be expected to bring this embattled municipality out of its financial woes and to address sensitive issues such as gender-based violence and fraud, when they are themselves convicts.
What message does this send to those that have found themselves to be victims of people in positions of power, that crime really pays?
Donson and Meshoa should never have been allowed to come close to any public office, let alone the mayor’s office.
Whether “it was the will of the people” as they often claim is secondary. The fact is that they are representing a party and that party allows for this to happen.
Electing such people to positions at the expense of the already squeezed taxpayer is against everything that we as a country want to achieve in so far as ridding public offices of malfeasance.
Those who assisted these criminals back into the municipality can hardly claim to be helping in this regard.
Cape Times