Winde And Bredell Are Constitutional Delinquents Regardless Of Public Protector Dropping The Ball

24 November 2023

In 2021 the Public Protector found Western Cape Premier Alan Winde and MEC Anton Bredell in breach of the Constitution, the Executive Ethics Act and Code of Conduct after Bredell was recorded encouraging Oudtshoorn councillors to apply to place the municipality under provincial administration to free them up to help the DA “rebuild our brand”.

Bredell was recorded telling the councillors: “I think that it’s very important that the benefit of this will be to make your hands a bit loose, to go back to your communities, because what we pick up in the research is that there’s a gap between the Councillors and the Communities.”

Winde was censured for his efforts to defend Bredell’s misconduct as lawful at the Portfolio Committee on Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs. The Public Protector found: “The statements made by the Premier… were not in accordance with the Constitution and legislation regulating the intervention by a provincial government in a municipality…”.

Although the evidence against them was clear cut, and they didn’t have a legal leg to stand on, instead of accepting they’d been caught out, and apologising for their truancy,  Winde and Bredell took the Public Protector’s findings on review.

They were effectively following the well-worn path of certain ANC leaders, who rely on delays, obfuscation and legal technicalities to avoid being held accountable for their misdeeds. Such conduct – roundly criticised by their party, the DA – is known as the Stalingrad Defence.

This week it emerged that their review application had fallen through the proverbial cracks. The Public Protector would not be opposing their review application. We understand the office has drastically cut back on opposing review applications because it doesn’t have enough money.

In terms of the Executive Ethics Act, the Public Protector is the only institution empowered to investigate allegations that members of the executive have breached the Act and the Executive Code of Conduct.

What that means is that Winde and Bredell have succeeded in avoiding accountability, despite their unethical conduct being recorded and freely available.

The inability of the Office of the Public Protector to fulfil the basic function of defending its decisions renders it toothless. If it can’t defend its decisions there is no point in the office making decisions in the first place. It borders on wasteful expenditure.

Winde and Bredell’s technical strategy has paid off – for them. But their conduct remains in breach of the Constitution of South Africa and the Executive Ethics Act.

In fact, their conduct is a violation of basic ethics regardless of what is written in any legislation. Perverting the legal provisions for placing a municipality under provincial administration for party political gain is unethical and an abuse of office. 

The fact that the reports were set aside, unopposed, does not change that.

Winde and Bredell are constitutional delinquents. If they don’t agree with that label I encourage them to sue me and allow a judge to decide, not on a technicality but on the merits of the evidence.

*GOOD Party Secretary-General Brett Herron was responsible for submitting the recording of Bredell to the Public Protector, after receiving it from a whistle-blower.

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