Controversial politician, Gayton McKenzie has announced his resignation as district executive mayor of Central Karoo.
“I am resigning because I stated at my inauguration that I would serve for only a year and the marking of that year has arrived today,” he said in his letter to the Speaker, which he shared on social media on Tuesday.
McKenzie said he believed that he left the community that he served, better than he found them. He thanked coalition partners for keeping his administration “on its toes”.
McKenzie also thanked his friends, staff and volunteers for their support.
“I found people using bucket toilets for decades. Today, no one is using bucket toilets. People used the veld and today they are using flushing toilets.
“I found six broken pools in a state of absolute disrepair. Anyone looking at the photos of those facilities was filled with a great sense of despair. Our children in those areas were not going to swim at the height of summer, but under my leadership five of those pools are working and the children swam and will swim again this year and in time to come,” the letter read.
McKenzie also included his achievements in the letter which included modern water tanks in each yard in Leeu Gamka and the use of abandoned building to boost the local economy.
"Being in business is never easy and these entrepreneurs will always face their own challenges but I am proud of my part in helping people to help themselves and their community. This can-do attitude is what we need throughout the country, which is why I am leaving the Karoo to focus on the much greater challenge before us all of fixing our beloved country," he said.
McKenzie said he was proud of the firm hand demonstrated in dealing with administrators who failed the municipality.
"Today there is money in the bank and we have been paying R10 million a month towards our Eskom debt. The collection rate has improved from between 40 and 50% to more than 70%, and it continues to improve. Much more needs to be done, but there is a foundation to work from now.
Here in the Karoo, I have indeed not reached all the targets I set myself, hence I will be staying on as an ordinary volunteer to ensure we finish everything I promised the people," he said.
"Lastly and most importantly I want to thank my friends and all the volunteers who selflessly supported all the changes we brought here, hence I never had to use a cent from this municipality throughout my term. I took no salary and no perks whatsoever. I paid for my own bodyguards, travel and accommodation at all times. I donated my salary to the community," he said.
He added that all the bucket toilets, pools, water solutions and more were done using private money from various fund-raisers.
"It was a demonstration of how it is possible to achieve great things without needing the kinds of budgets that officials shamelessly ask for. One must just be efficient and not lose money towards corruption at every step of the way.
"This is a lesson for all of us, and one I will certainly be taking away from this experience myself. I came here to gain public service experience in my journey towards being ready to govern. Even though the Central Karoo looks different today to the place I found, I did not expect to leave here as being even more changed than this stark and profoundly beautiful heartland of our country.
I came here to make the Karoo a better place, but in the process, I am most humbled to say, it was the Karoo that made me a better man.
I want to wish the new mayor all the best and that her journey will be a hundredfold better than my own. May God bless the Central Karoo," McKenzie said.
IOL