KLEINMOND – On the 20^th of December last year, just as everybody was getting into the festive spirit, the Overstrand Municipality was served with notices of two separate high court applications against the awarding of the controversial De Mond and Lake Martina Yacht Club tenders in Hermanus. The applications, brought by the Lake Marina Yacht and Boat club and a De Mond resident, Elmien de Kock, seeks to set aside the awarding of the tenders and subsequent leases concluded between the Municipality and Point Caravan Resort (Pty) Ltd.

Point Caravan was awarded a 45-year lease for the De Mond property and a 25-year lease for the Lake Marina site in Fisherhaven.

The court applications are important in that it represents civil society questioning the way the Municipality handled the awarding of the tenders. We have not seen the legal documentation and the various parties are understandably tight-lipped about it, but we believe that both applications in essence question the lack of public participation during the process. Public participation forms an integral part of municipal land transactions such as these and is legally prescribed. The question is: Did the Overstrand Municipality follow these legal requirements when awarding the two tenders?

The Overstrand Herald’s Whalecoast news first questioned the process in late June 2024. This was after we had discovered that prominent Mayco member, Clinton Lerm, then in charge of the infrastructure portfolio, was in fact a business partner of the two directors of Point Caravan Resort (Pty) Ltd, Alfred Wiffen and Mika Lutchman. We subsequently established that they were partners in at least one other business. Warning lights were flickering. When we approached two senior DA councillors, one of them the Speaker, both said they did not know about Mr Lerm’s business links to the Point Caravan directors.

The Mayor and the Municipality meanwhile went on the defensive and insisted that everything was above board and that all the parties had declared their interests. We had to take their word for it. The declaration of interest register is a private document kept under lock and key in the Municipal Manager’s office and Mayor Annelie Rabie made it clear that it was going to stay that way. As to public participation, Mayor Rabie said that would happen after the Municipality had received site development plans from Point Caravan.

What usually happens in the case of applications of this nature is that the legal team of the applicants will, in terms of Rule 53 of the High Court, request all documentation related to the tender from the Municipality. No doubt the register will be one of those documents. Another interesting document will be the minutes of the bid adjudication meeting where the decision on the tenders was taken. At the time a source told us that there was a deadlock and that the Municipal Manager, Mr Dean O’Neill, had stepped in to cast the deciding vote. Again, we’re hoping the court proceedings will be able to clear this up.

We understand that Point Caravan Resort (Pty) Ltd has appointed their own attorney and filed notice to abide by the decision of the court. In other words, they are not going to oppose the applications but rather sit on the sidelines and watch what happens. This is telling. We also know that all work at the De Mond site has stopped. Everything appears to be in limbo.

In an interesting development two weeks ago, Mayor Rabie confirmed that councillor Lerm had resigned from the Mayco. Mr Lerm told us that he resigned from the Mayco to pursue his business interests. Many, however, believe his resignation was a direct result of the political fall-out from the awarding of the two tenders to his business partners at Point Caravan.

In politics somebody has to take the fall. Once that person has been identified, the politicians usually scramble to create as much distance between themselves and the fall guy. Lerm obviously couldn’t resign and walk away from the DA, as that would be tantamount to an admission of guilt, so he is still there as councillor, but believe me, he might as well be in outer Mongolia.