GRAAFF-REINET NEWS - Members of the Compatriots of South Africa (CSA) branches in the Dr Beyers Naude Local Municipality (DBNLM) are outraged by the removal of CSA Cllr Laughton Hoffman from office.

This follows after Hoffman, who was elected as speaker in November 2021, was expelled from the party on 15 January.

 In terms of the letter served upon Hoffman by the CSA Legal and Governance Council, the expulsion is effective immediately. It is in line with the CSA Constitution and supported by Hoffman's neglect to return a signed copy of the Acceptance of Nomination to be a Candidate form by 10 January, making him guilty of insubordination.

In addition, Hoffman failed to communicate with the National Executive Council (NEC) of CSA regarding caucus meetings he attended with the DA and never updated the party on his operations. However, the disgruntled members are convinced that the decision to expel Hoffman from the party was driven by a personal dispute relating to payments that ensued between CSA President, Cheslin Felix, and Hoffman.

Graaff-Reinet Advertiser submitted a request for comment to CSA Chairperson, Marchelle Davies, but received the response after the newspaper has gone to press. A request for comment, as well as an explanation of the procedure that was followed in deciding to deduct money from Hoffman's salary to pay Felix, was submitted to DBNLM CFO, Jimmy Joubert, but no response has been received yet.

This is a developing story, and Graaff-Reinet Advertiser will keep readers updated on any new developments, including possible responses from the CSA Chairperson and / or the DBNLM CFO.

In summary, the members explained the situation to Graaff-Reinet Advertiser as follows:

During the week preceding the local government elections in November 2021 CSA members had a meeting with CSA Treasurer, Lester Ferndale, to determine the amount that will be payable to the party by candidates elected to council. The amount was set at 15% but increased to 25% after the CSA managed to secure only one seat - the seat in the DBNLM.

Hoffman made his first payment on 25 November 2021 when he transferred R8 000 into the bank account of CSA Chairperson, Marchelle Davies, at the request of Felix. This amounted to almost half his salary at the time.

Following his election as Speaker of Council on 23 November, Hoffman's next salary date was on 15 December. On the 15th of December, he transferred R7 000 into the bank account of Felix. Both these payments should have been made into the account of the CSA but, at the request of Felix, the payments were made into personal accounts.

After Hoffman made the payment on 15 December, Felix approached him for money to buy a 4x4 vehicle. Felix explained that he needed the vehicle for work in the Dr Beyers Naude municipal area and that Hoffman should contribute towards the instalments. Felix then contacted Hoffman on 24 December requesting the amount of R13 000 to be paid into his bank account.

Hoffman refused the request since he believed that he already honoured his commitment towards the party by paying the required monthly percentage and therefore had no further commitments towards the CSA President.

Hoffman also decided to discontinue communication with Felix during the festive season but was then contacted by Davies who wanted to know why he was not responding to them. Hoffman then requested a meeting with the CSA NEC to explain his reason for not communicating with the CSA President.

An online meeting was scheduled for 6 January but Hoffman was not admitted into the meeting and only notified the next day that the NEC decided during the meeting that he should pay over an amount of R90 000 to the party in three instalments of R30 000 per month over the next three months. After Hoffman neglected to respond to this written notification within the required 7-day period he was served with the letter confirming his expulsion from the CSA. This letter was served without consulting the CSA branches in the DBNLM.

The CSA members allege that the expulsion of Hoffman from the party and, in effect, his removal from office as speaker, was invalid since the NEC failed to follow the procedure outlined in the CSA Constitution. Moreover, the term of office of the CSA NEC and President already came to an end on 31 December 2021 and for this reason, they no longer have any mandate to make decisions or act on behalf of the party.

It is further alleged that Felix managed to register a new proportional representation (PR) list with the IEC on 18 January. Allegedly, Felix is the number one PR candidate for the DBNLM on this new PR list. At this stage, it is uncertain how Felix managed to register this alleged new PR list since he is not a resident of the Dr Beyers Naude local municipality and was not registered as a voter in any of the wards in the Dr Beyers Naude municipal area. Felix resides in Gqeberha in Nelson Mandela Bay where he was registered as a voter and ward candidate for the CSA. He was also the number one PR candidate on the registered PR list for Nelson Mandela Bay municipality.

In addition, there was a deadline for the submission of PR lists. According to the CSA members, any list that was registered after the registration of the initial PR list is invalid since the initial PR list that was submitted by the party was accepted and registered accordingly.

Graaff-Reinet Advertiser is awaiting a response from the IEC regarding the alleged registration of this new PR list for the DBNLM.

To add fuel to the fire of the disgruntled CSA members, the DBNLM allegedly deducted money from Hoffman's salary and paid it over to Felix on 25 January. According to Hoffman he picked up a discrepancy in his salary and contacted the DBNLM Chief Financial Officer, Jimmy Joubert, who confirmed that he was only paid up until 20 January and that the balance of the salary was paid to "the new councillor," presumably Felix. The CSA members find this particularly frustrating since Hoffman's expulsion is still in dispute. Felix has not even been sworn into office, nor has he done any work to justify the payment of any salary.

In response to the claims made by disgruntled members of CSA branches in the DBNLM the CSA National Chairperson and National Spokesperson, Marchelle Davies, and CSA NEC submitted the following media statement:

The Compatriots of South Africa (CSA) contested for the 2021 Local Government Elections (LGE2021) in 14 municipalities including Dr Beyers Naude Municipality. The elections timetable issued by the IEC required that certain submissions be made by political parties at specific due dates.

One of these conditions were that the CSA had to submit nominated candidates from all municipalities in all the relevant wards where they were represented to be elected as ward and proportional representative (PR) councillors. During these selections the NEC nominated Laughton Hoffman to represent the party as the number one PR candidate in the Dr Beyers Naude Municipality – a nomination which he accepted. 

The nomination was done by the NEC in good faith due to the potential, promise and dedication shown by Mr Hoffman in the months leading up to the elections.

Mr Hoffman, who was appointed as the national campaign coordinator for the LGE2021, was put in charge of mobilising the CSA leaders in the various municipalities and coordinate candidate selections alongside the campaign team which included the party President, Cheslin Felix, and various other key role players.

As is customary in all political parties, the nominated candidates are required to sign an Acceptance of Nomination to be a Candidate, which stipulates that, should you be elected to any office, you will be liable to make a financial contribution to the party in support of its operations and campaigns.

In the case of CSA, the contributions will be used towards the operational costs which included a CSA branded vehicle to be used for campaigning purposes, official office space and campaign materials. At the time when the candidates were nominated, such an agreement was not finalised by the NEC. A temporary draft of the agreement was presented to the campaign team for review and correction on 21 October 2021, but was failed to be finalised, endorsed, and implemented.

On 02 November 2021, the CSA was advised that the party has been successful in winning a PR seat in the Dr Beyers Naude Municipality (DBNLM). Since the financial agreement had not been finalised prior to the elections and Mr Hoffman would now need to take up office in DBNLM as CSA PR councillor, Mr Hoffman and Mr Felix entered into a verbal contract in terms of which Mr Hoffman agreed that he would make certain contributions to the party (which all-in-all would be less than half of his salary) to cover the operational costs which Mr Felix had been covering for CSA out of his pocket from his personal bank account thus far.

To date these expenses were being deducted from Mr Felix’s personal bank account since he was paying for it out of pocket. The financial contributions were to be made by Mr Hoffman on the same day which he were to earn his salary to ensure that he meets his financial obligations as per his verbal agreement. This also meant that the payments needed to be made into Mr Felix’s personal bank account until such time that the operations were successfully transferred into CSA’s name. The verbal agreement between Mr Hoffman and Mr Felix was made after many such discussions in the presence of members of CSA and the CSA leadership at multiple occasions leading up to the elections.

Since the DBNLM was in a “hung council”, the parties that were successful in winning seats were obliged to join forces with other political parties to form a coalition government that would have the majority vote in the municipality. During the negotiations, the NEC of CSA made the decision to go into coalition with the DA and FF+ thereby making their coalition the majority vote in the DBNLM Council.

In line with the negotiations led by the CSA President, the party was granted the position of Speaker. Since Mr Hoffman was nominated as the CSA’s number one PR candidate, he was appointed by the NEC to represent the party in Council as the Speaker of DBNLM.

Mr Hoffman was officially sworn into office as the Speaker of Council on 23 November 2021 and the NEC appointed a caucus team that would support Mr Hoffman. Mr Hoffman was then informed he would need to discuss and disclose all political matters with regards to Council, DBNLM, CSA and any other relevant issues with his caucus. All such discussions and disclosures would then need to be written up in an official report and presented to the NEC by Mr Hoffman and his caucus.

Following his appointment into office, Mr Hoffman received his first and second pro rata salaries from the municipality for his position of Speaker in Council, which meant that he was now obligated to make his financial contributions to CSA. However, on both occasions, Mr Hoffman failed to meet all his financial obligations in line with his verbal agreement, an issue which the NEC attempted to discuss with Mr Hoffman in December 2021.

Mr Hoffman had however at this point refused to take any calls or messages from the party President and NEC of CSA. When we were finally able to get hold of Mr Hoffman, he agreed to continue with his financial obligations, but on his terms and not the terms set out by the NEC, and more specifically, Mr Felix. He also admitted to refusing to take calls and messages from members of the public appealing to his office for assistance with various needs and projects that affected their communities and their livelihoods – an action that is unbecoming to a member of Council, especially that of the Speaker of the Council.

The Top Six called a meeting on 06 January 2022 and requested Mr Hoffman make a face-to-face appearance to present himself and his grievances – an opportunity during which they hoped Mr Hoffman would either agree to meet his obligations as per his verbal agreement or sign the official written financial agreement which was finalised during this meeting.

Mr Hoffman, however, failed to attend the meeting. The NEC then forwarded the financial agreement to Mr Hoffman to sign and advised that he had seven days to appeal the agreement should he not be happy with it. Mr Hoffman failed to sign the agreement. He also failed to appeal the agreement which led to the NEC finding his actions to be gross insubordination of the party and its NEC.

In his time as CSA PR councillor, Mr Hoffman had failed to attend the latest three meetings and sent no written apology. He also failed to meet with his caucus to inform them of any political matters and relevant issues as required, yet he continued to do projects with other members of the coalition without the knowledge of the NEC. 

This, together with his default on his financial obligations, led to the decision of the NEC to expel Mr Hoffman, effective immediately, on 15 January 2022. This expulsion is within the rights of the NEC as stipulated in Bylaw 8 of the CSA Constitution.

In addition to the above, Mr Hoffman without mandate appointed individuals to work is his office as Speaker – political appointments which needs to be discussed with his caucus and awarded to CSA members that are in good standing. To the party’s dismay, among these appointees were a former CSA member who resigned from CSA in November 2021 – this individual is therefore not a member of CSA due to resignation.

Mr Hoffman has since been on a mission to defame the CSA party President and furthermore is busy with a campaign to submit a motion to remove the President (and possibly the NEC in its entirety) from his position, making claims that he is a dictator and after money which is not due to him.

These actions further add to the expulsion of Mr Hoffman since he is bringing the party and its President into disrepute by defaming his character and that of the party. Due to the uncertainty and unrest that the whole situation created and as a direct result of Mr Hoffman’s gross insubordination, the NEC, under the powers of the President as granted to him by the CSA Constitution in Bylaw 6, has deployed the party President, Mr Cheslin Felix, to represent CSA as PR councillor in the DBNLM Council, thus also assuming the position of Speaker of Council.

The NEC would like to emphasise that this deployment is in no way a ploy for Mr Felix to earn money for his own personal use. On the contrary, Mr Felix has agreed to the same financial agreement that Mr Hoffman refused to sign, making him liable to pay financial contributions to CSA which would be used for the operations and campaign of the organisation.

This deployment was done to stabilise the party and ensure its financial viability as they head into their 2024 campaign for national elections. It should also be noted that this deployment is in no way fraudulent as claimed by followers of Mr Hoffman since Mr Felix is permanently relocating to DBNLM to fulfil his role in Council. The deployment was also supported by the IEC and its rules regarding elections, candidate nominations, and appointments in Council.

Regarding the allegations of payments made by DBNLM to Mr Felix the following: Mr Felix has not received any payments from the DBNLM to date since he has not yet been sworn into office. DBNLM does not have any particulars of the bank accounts of either Mr Felix or CSA since this has not been requested from them thus far. 

The allegations made that Mr Felix received a portion of Mr Hoffman’s salary or any payment whatsoever from DBNLM on 25 January 2022 is false.

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