The Stellenbosch Municipality is expected to hold a special council meeting on Friday to address allegations of “race-based bullying” by acting corporate services director, Alexander Kannemeyer.
Stellenbosch mayor Jeremy Fasser said on Wednesday that a preliminary investigation into possible labour law infringements had been concluded after an internal video recording from 2023 was leaked on Facebook.
The video shows Kannemeyer, Shane Chandaka, and another person (JB) in a virtual meeting when Kannemeyer tells them: “I have a concern that we also have always whites in charge still in our technical services and water service. I have a problem with that because the message we are sending out to especially internal staff is they don’t have the capability and the competency.”
Since the video’s release on Tuesday, the Democratic Alliance (DA) has said it will support a motion to suspend and dismiss Kannemeyer.
The party welcomed Fasser’s swift action in convening the council meeting.
DA national spokesperson Willie Aucamp said the party was deeply troubled by the remarks.
“Race-based bullying, or bullying of any kind, has no place in any workplace. At Friday’s Council meeting the DA will bring a motion to terminate the acting-Directorship of Kannemeyer, who has been acting-Director of Corporate Services. This will effectively “demote” him, while the matter undergoes investigation and commensurate disciplinary action,” said Aucamp.
“We reject all forms of discrimination, regardless of their source or target. The comments in the recording have no place in a municipality under DA governance and should not have a place in any government in South Africa.”
The ANC in Stellenbosch has come out in support of Kannemeyer, dismissing the controversy as a racial smear campaign.
ANC Stellenbosch spokesperson Monwabisi Rataza said Kannemeyer was, to their knowledge, referring to a person of colour when the comments were made.
“It is a disgrace of the municipality trying to expose their colleague. Acting director Kannemeyer’s intervention reflects deep concern over the persistence of … appointment patterns at Stellenbosch municipality – where white males dominate and are offered top positions even though there are highly qualified internal staff. This is not an attack on merit but a call to interrogate whether our selection criteria unintentionally reproduces privilege and undermines redress,” said Rataza.
The municipality confirmed it would institute a full internal investigation into the video and review its recruitment and selection policies.
In the recording, Kannemeyer also said: “I cannot support the fact that we every time appoint the best candidate and it’s always the white male. So we not going to go for gender based anymore? (sic)”
“We work to a (sic) where we either make the life difficult for the person that came in… the person resigns and afterwards we get what we want, and I already told you I have a concern with certain things that’s happening in that section.”
Civil rights organisation AfriForum has also slammed Kannemeyer’s statements and announced it will conduct its own probe into possible discrimination.
AfriForum’s Morne Mostert said: “Kannemeyer… allegedly suggests making life ‘difficult’ for white employees until they resign so that they can be replaced by the municipality’s preferred candidate. When senior officials propose race-based victimisation instead of merit-based appointments, it undermines employees’ rights and also directly threatens service delivery to the public.”
Rataza, however, argued that the leaking of privileged information reflected poorly on governance.
He said that using confidential content to “score political points” mocked the democratic process and violated legislative norms.
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