Photo: Cllr Veronica Micheals while taking her oath with Pastor Gosling.
Oudtshoorn, 30 May 2023 – During a Special Council Meeting on Monday, 29 May 2023, Councillor Veronica Michaels was inaugurated as a councillor of the Greater Oudtshoorn Municipality. Cllr Michaels, who will represent Saamstaan Suid-Afrika (ISASSA), appointment is valid from 03 May 2023 after confirmation from the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) that Mlandeli Nyuka is no longer a councillor of the Oudtshoorn Municipality.
The other councillors expressed a word of encouragement to the new councillor after she was inaugurated and wished her all the best in this new chapter. Cllr Micheals was also appointed as a Mayoral Committee (MAYCO) member and will be chairperson of the Community Services Portfolio Committee.
The change in the governance of the Council normally will lead to the change of Chairpersonship of Section 79 & 80 Committee. Cllr Raymond Wildschut has also been appointed as Chairperson of the Corporate Services Portfolio in terms of Section 80 of the Local Government: Municipal Structure Act 1998 (Act No. 117 of 1998), succeeding Cllr Christine Muller who will no longer be serving on the MAYCO.
When the Executive Mayor, Alderman Chris Macpherson, met with Cllr Micheals when she started on 03 May 2023, he stated that “stability in the council is of the utmost importance to me as mayor. That is why I am delighted at the confirmation of the IEC that Cllr Veronica Michaels is the current councillor of ISASSA and it is important to me that stability strengthens the activities of the entire council.” Mayor Macpherson further stated that there is currently really good cooperation between all the political parties in the council as there is consensus that service delivery and the community’s interests are the council’s priority.
Even though it was Cllr Micheals’s first council meeting, she was already busy with her activities as a councillor.