The Kouga Municipality inauguration took place yesterday, November 17 with Horatio Hendricks being re-elected as mayor and Hattingh Bornman being elected as the new deputy mayor.
The Kouga Municipality hosted their inauguration at Mentors Country Estate in Jeffreys Bay and introduced their 30 newly elected councillors.
Within the council, the Democratic Alliance won the majority with 16 seats, while the African National Congress retained 11 seats.
Furthermore, the Economic Freedom Fighters, Patriotic Alliance and Freedom Front Plus have one seat each in council.
In addition, Brenton Williams was elected as the new speaker of council, while Daniel Benson was chosen as the council’s chief whip.
During the inauguration Hendricks shared his 10-point plan for the next five years which he believed was ‘Kouga’s next chapter’.
The two main issues on his plan were to provide sustainable water security in a drought stricken Kouga and provide reliable energy to the community.
Hendricks said he was concerned about the water consumption during the festive season due to the influx of tourists.
“I am very worried about where we will end up in January and whether we will have enough water for ourselves,” said Hendricks.
“We are therefore going to come up with a comprehensive plan to make sure that we do not only find water, but that we make it sustainable.”
He further said they have coined the phrase ‘loadshedding is job shedding’ and they are therefore trying to find methods to provide sustainable energy for people in Kouga.
Hendricks said they already had six wind farms and were planning to establish three more wind farms.
If it were not for COVID-19 and the nationwide lockdown, he said the municipality would have had their first bio economy zone in the country.
“We are planning our own 10MW solar farm,” said Hendricks.
“In Kouga our first option is renewable and clean energy that is cheaper.”
His 10-point plan also highlighted issues such as infrastructure backlogs, tourism revival, public safety, attaining foreign investment and developing a smart city.
In addition, Hendricks’ plans included sustainable growth in the municipality, keeping Kouga clean and developing good governance.
