The Democratic Alliance appeared to have been caught off-guard by the ousting of Knysna mayor, Eleanor Bouw-Spies, following an ANC-led motion of no confidence in her.
Bouw Spies was replaced by the DA's Mark Willemse, with COPE's Ricky van Aswegan, the new Deputy Mayor at a Special Council meeting on Wednesday night
Knysna/Plett Herald reported that Bouw-Spies and the rest of the DA, excluding Willemse and former deputy mayor Peter Myers, walked out of the meeting just before the ANC's motion of no confidence was debated.
The online publication said the vote was 11 to 1 against Bouw-Spies with Speaker and former mayor, Georlene Wolmarans, the only official to vote against the motion.
Wolmarans reportedly recused herself afterwards from voting for a new mayor.
Commenting on the developments, DA national spokesperson, Refiloe Ntse'khe, said there was a lot consultation going on this morning following Wednesday night's developments.
"The DA's very disappointed the manner in which the mayor of Knysna was elected, by-passing all processes of the political party. Obviously the party will take this on review. From there on we want to make sure that we continue to service the residents of Knysna, so even with the mess that's going on, we don't want service delivery to be impacted on for the residents of Knysna," she said.
Asked what would happen to Willemse, Ntse'khe told Algoa FM News that the "leadership" still needs to make contact with the particular person and discuss what happened.
"At this point in time, obviously it's a new development and we are still dealing with the situation and we are not ready yet to discuss the outcome of it," Ntse'khe said.
