[imagesource: News24 / Supplied]

We did mention Jeffrey Donson in our Morning Spice last week, but this story bears repeating.

Donson was convicted of statutory rape and indecent assault against a 15-year-old while he was mayor of the Western Cape’s Kannaland municipality in 2008.

You might think that’s a career-ending moment right there, but you’d be wrong.

Last Tuesday, the Kannaland municipal council voted to re-elect him, with a convicted fraudster voted in as his deputy.

That deputy, Werner Meshoa, was previously a teacher. He was found guilty of sexual assault and the statutory rape of a pupil, and in 2012 was fired by the Western Cape education department.

Donson is above wearing mayoral chains, with Meshoa smiling directly at the camera.

After his 2008 conviction, reports IOL, Donson lodged 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.

He reclaimed his title when Icosa formed a coalition government with the ANC, but following a special meeting on Friday the ANC in the province announced that it will review its coalition agreement.

Icosa is the Independent Civic Organisation of SA, a political party formed by former ANC Karoo District Municipality manager Truman Prince, who was was expelled from the ANC in 2006.

The fact that Donson was re-elected in the first place tells you everything you need to know about how the ruling party regards our country’s never-ending battle against gender-based violence.

On November 25 (that’s Thursday), the 16 Days of Activism against Gender-Based Violence campaign begins once more, and we can look forward to empty platitudes en masse.

Rinse and repeat, year after year.

It’s also worth revisiting a GroundUp report from February of this year which shows just how terribly the municipality, which includes Ladismith, Zoar, Calitzdorp, and Van Wyksdorp, has been run:

Everything is falling apart in Kannaland: water supplies, sewage, rubbish collection. Even the Ladismith city hall is in a mess in this Little Karoo municipality marked by strange political alliances and in-fighting…

More seriously, sewage from the entire town of Zoar flows untreated into the Nels River because the pump meant to pipe the water from the collection dam up to the sludge ponds for purification is broken. The fencing and gate to the collection dam, which is next to housing on the south-eastern edge of the town, are broken, and no-one is on duty to prevent children from wandering into the contaminated area.

Tiresome, isn’t it?

The Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) has now launched an investigation into Donson’s re-election.

Given how utterly ridiculous this entire situation is, it seems fitting to end with a song released on September 9 in the lead-up to the election that praises Donson and calls him ‘daai ou’:

[sources:iol&groundup]