Staff Writer
Axed mayor for the Keetmanshoop municipality, Maree Smit, is threatening to drag the party to court, alleging that her image was dragged through the mud after being recently falsely accused of misappropriating funds from a German account.
This is contained in a letter of demands written by Smit’s lawyers, Lentin, Botma & Van den Heever, to the party’s leadership, although she refused to give further comment on the matter, saying it is sub-judice.
“It is our instructions that on 30 July 2022 at the 5th Political Action Committee Meeting at Swakopmund, you published the following words of and concerning our client: that you had recalled a mayor in the south, who took a direct deposit from Germany into her private banking account, monies destined to help people from the south.”
“By the said words, you meant, and was understood by the addressees to mean that our client does not have a moral fibre, is not a law-abiding citizen, is unscrupulous, is not a fit and proper person to hold the responsible position of mayor of Keetmanshoop, stole the money that was deposited into her account and as such, is a thief, is corrupt and contravened Act 8 of 2003 and ought to be prosecuted for such contravention,”
reads 29 July letter to LPM.
Smit’s lawyers also said that the contents of the publication were false and defamatory, adding that her good name has been injured in the process and has consequently suffered damages.
The lawyers expressed that they hold instruction to demand from the LPM a retraction of the alleged defamatory statement in writing within 10 days, failure of which a civil lawsuit would be instituted.
The LPM second-in-command, Henny Seibeb, has, in the meantime, said that they will respond to the letter in due course via their lawyers.
The party’s head-honcho Bernadus Swartbooi is reportedly in South Africa, attending the Pan-African Parliament (PAP).
For her part, Smit said the letter remains a confidential document, and she thus directed all questions to her lawyers.
“Am I speaking now to a lawyer? If you want to ask questions in that regard, I do not know where you got hold of this information. It was definitely not from me that you got a hold of that information. You have to speak to my lawyer, no longer to me.”
“If I wanted to reveal anything about it, I would have run to the newspapers myself. That’s why I involved the lawyers, and at this stage, the case is sub-judice. If you want to know something, and my lawyer wants to reveal that, please talk to him,” she said.
LPM sacked Smit last year after she was accused of colluding with the now-fired Chief Executive Officer, Desmond Basson, to cut water for residents of the town.
The party’s stance had been that services must be withdrawn from big private and public corporates, and accusations against Smit are that she defied this position.
“The head of the municipality is aware of the N$3 million debt owed by the Ministry of Defence. Why did they not cut their water? So, the council has failed without a doubt to implement the directives,” party mega-phone Eneas Emvula is quoted as saying at the time.
