South Africa: Sixth Mayor in Three Years for Beaufort West - This Time From the DA - Aims to Fix Service Delivery

4 July 2024
Daily Maverick (Johannesburg)
analysis By Suné Payne

The changes have rung in the Karoo municipality of Beaufort West -- the DA now holds a majority in the council, and the mayoral chains.

Listen to this article 4 min Listen to this article 4 min Josias "Sias" Reynolds from the Democratic Alliance (DA) was elected as the new Beaufort West mayor on Thursday, 4 July during a special council sitting. His party now runs the municipality with an outright majority for the first time.

Reynolds told Daily Maverick on Thursday afternoon that a big task lay ahead of him to "try to alleviate all the service delivery problems in Beaufort West... But I am confident that we will take small steps at a time and hopefully move in the right direction."

During three by-elections in June, the DA won all three vacant seats and gained an outright majority in the council. The party took the seats left vacant by the Patriotic Alliance (two seats) and the ANC (one seat).

In addition to Reynolds taking the mayoral chain, Georgina Duimpies was elected as deputy mayor and Japie van der Linde as Speaker.

Daylin Mitchell, the DA's constituency head for Beaufort West, said, "Developments today usher in a turning point for the municipality and the people of Beaufort West. For years, the municipality has been mired [in] mismanagement and corruption, but with Mayor Reynolds and...

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