Central Karoo District Mayor, Gayton McKenzie, says he plans to root out the rot in Beaufort-West and the rest of the region. Supporters of the Patriotic Alliance president flocked to the town as he celebrated 100 days in office.
McKenzie made several promises after taking on the job in April. He’s now replaced all bucket toilets with flushing toilets, repaired potholes, refurbished the municipal swimming pool and opened several new businesses.
Mayor McKenzie has tackled service delivery issues and revived the local economy with new businesses and investments. He says he’s now ready to take on fraud and corruption.
For years, the Beaufort West municipality has faced scrutiny for the siphoning off of millions, allegedly by senior municipal officials. Three of them go on trial for tender fraud later this year. One of them is McKenzie’s coalition partner from the Karoo Democratic Force. All those who are part of the rot have been warned to get ready to face the music.
“We are going to launch a full forensic investigation. The promotions are even worse in Beaufort-West. The unions and politically connected people were given posts that they were not even qualified for. and I am not going to sit here and say everything is right here. I will sit here and say everything is wrong here. They are interested in capital projects and people will have to answer,” says McKenzie.
The municipality says Forensic investigations will be launched into the sale of vast tracts of land, massive overtime fraud amongst its employees and the sale of the Beaufort West airport.
That is a national key point. You can’t sell a national key point that benefits the communities of the Central Karoo. The selling of the airport was to a person that does not have an interest in the Central Karoo,” says Central Karoo municipal manager, Sithembele Vatala.
Despite the area’s woes, McKenzie has managed to breathe new life into one of the country’s poorest regions. 25 new businesses have opened, including the town’s first bakery. There are plans for a private hospital and commercial flights to Beaufort West.
But the Mayor has faced criticism for his stance on illegal foreign nationals, and more recently, the DA was opposed to him cutting electricity to businesses with municipal arrears.
“When we started the cutting of electricity and in three days, we raised something like R5,8 million and I’m talking about major companies that have started to pay. It’s just a culture of let’s do what we want. The airport is one of many things that’s going to be investigated. Buildings and land need to be investigated,” says McKenzie.
McKenzie will now turn his attention to other towns in the central Karoo, like Prince Albert and Leeu Gamka.
Gayton McKenzie says service delivery is top priority, 14 June 2022:
