Media Release: Garden Route DM loses Councillor to COVID-19

For immediate release
3 December 2020

It is with great sadness that the Garden Route District Municipality (GRDM) announces the passing of Councillor Putco Mphuthumi Mapitiza, an ANC (African National Congress) Councillor from Plettenberg Bay who has succumbed to COVID-19.

The late Councillor Mapitiza was directly elected as councillor to serve on the Garden Route District Municipal Council. He also served on numerous committees, including the Property and Asset Management Committee, the Workplace and Restructuring Committee and the Strategic Services Committee.  Mapitiza is described by councillors who worked alongside him as a true leader; an outstanding servant of the people; a prolific commissar and a revolutionary who loved life.

GRDM Executive Mayor, Alderman Memory Booysen, recalled meeting the late Putco Mapitiza in 1989 while participating in boxing, whereafter they became inspiring partners, practising and attending tournaments together. Booysen said on a ‘lighter note’, “He (Mapitiza) was lucky, he retired undefeated in boxing”.  Alderman Booysen remembered recruiting Putco into youth politics in 1994-1995 with the help of the present ANC Member of the Western Cape Provincial Parliament, Mr Lulama Mvimbi, whereafter the three of them became political associates.  After ‘graduating’ into fulltime politics and years later, Booysen (who later joined the Democratic Alliance) and Mapitiza both became councillors at the GRDM.  “We will all remember Putco and especially me, as somebody who had no grey areas in his personality.  What you saw was what you got, and one either agreed or disagreed with him. He was not a pretender in terms of expressing his political ideologies. I do believe that his passing is a great loss to the Garden Route as a whole. I am saddened that in this instance I am not just losing a friend or a former sports partner, but a brother too – MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE,” Alderman Booysen concluded.

GRDM’s ANC Chief Whip and long-time “comrade’’ of the late Mapitiza, Alderman Pieter Van der Hoven, remembers him as a visionary, a shepherd and a sober thinker, at the forefront of technology, who was loved by all who dealt with him. “The value Comrade Putco added to the ANC, as well as being a community leader, remains incomparable. As a councillor, he was dedicated, strategic and directional with a reasoned judgement. He was highly respected and had an unsurpassed sense of humour.  Putco’s death is a huge shock and loss to the greater organisation in the region and the community,” Van der Hoven said.

Alderman Virgil Gericke, President of the Plaaslike Besorgde Inwoners (PBI) and fellow councillor at GRDM, furthermore described Mapitiza as a present gentleman, a true cadre loyal to the course of freedom and justice.

The late Councillor Putco Mphuthumi Mapitiza served as the former ANC Regional Secretary in the Southern Cape, as well as Ex Officio on the Provincial Executive Committee of the ANC.

As we enter the festive season and with the second wave of COVID-19 in ‘full bloom’, the GRDM wants to call on the public to continue adhering to safe and hygienic behaviours, to stay vigilant and always wear a mask in public, to avoid large gatherings and continue practising social distancing.

END

Thank you Alderman Speaker and once again, good morning to all Councillors present, those in Council Chambers and those who are working from home.

Alderman Speaker, in my culture they say that one builds a relationship by giving a handshake to another or by having eye-to-eye contact. I am now making eye contact with Councillor Wilbert Harris. I would like to relay to him that he is warmly welcomed as a member of our council. We have worked together on other platforms and are not strangers to one another, hence I will relay as Councillor Gericke did, when he congratulated our new Alderladies – let’s continue to do what we are elected to do. I am convinced that you will be able to efficiently do what you were elected to do.

Alderman Speaker, I must remind the people of the Garden Route that we are taking a lot of strain under COVID-19. Our region is still a hotspot and now one of the fastest growing in terms of rising active cases. This has been calculated in terms of COVID-19 cases per 100 000 in our area. We unfortunately keep peaking on a daily basis.

Once again, my plea to Garden Routers is to please abide by what we have been asked to do. We must wear our masks when we go out in public, we must wash our hands frequently for 20 seconds or longer, we must exercise social distancing, and we must look after ourselves when making use of public transport. It is in every individual’s hands to collectively beat this virus together

Alderman Speaker, you did allude to some of our own colleagues who are infected, some are Councillors too. Our prayers are with them and we support them in everything they do. We hope and pray that those in quarantine do not become infectious.

Alderman Speaker, also on another sad note, there was a horrible accident in Plettenberg Bay over the past weekend and I am not going to mention names, because I was not given permission to do so. What I can say is that the lady who died was a personal assistant of mine when I was Mayor for Bitou Municipality. My heartfelt condolences go out to the friends, family and colleagues of the deceased. On behalf of the Garden Route District Municipality, our prayers go out to them – may the Lord give them strength over this time.

Alderman Speaker, we also buried our former Integrated Development Manager the past weekend in Molteno, one of the last items he prepared for today’s meeting. I want to say that those of us who had been to Mr Cekiso’s funeral followed all necessary protocols and safety measures on the day. We did not even get out of our vehicles at the cemetery or anything. Apart from us being sanitised our clothes and the area around us were disinfected.

Thank you Alderman Speaker.