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The GOOD Party has referred the case of George Deputy Mayor Raybin Figland, who allegedly forced a schoolgirl to send him photographs of her private parts, to the Office of the Public Protector.

“On Friday, one of GOOD’s Councillors in George, Chantelle Kyd, filed a motion to the speaker of the George Municipality council to reopen its probe of Figland,” said GOOD Secretary-General Brett Herron.

“It is an important principle that councillors have the opportunity to hold the leadership of councils to account.“

“But we can’t expect the George Municipality to investigate itself, so today we asked the Public Protector to investigate the municipality’s cover-up of the matter, including maladministration and failure to comply with the councillor Code of Conduct,” Herron said.

According to the DA’s Federal Legal Commission (FLC), which investigated the matter between October 2023 and February 2024, Figland confessed to receiving the photographs from the teenager.

Evidence on which the FLC relied in its investigation included a discussion between the teenager and her father, recorded by DA George Councillor Stag Cronje, and alleged confessions by Figland, himself. 

According to the FLC, which interviewed the victim, “[she] confirmed that Figland had forced her to provide nude photographs (fotos van my lyf en my privaatdele) in an extortive manner after finding out that she was in a relationship with another person.” The reason she had sent the photographs to the Deputy Mayor was that he had threatened to tell her father that she was in the relationship.

But, although the FLC report was out before the DA-led municipality’s investigation of the matter, when the municipality later tabled its report, in July 2024, the Council voted to absolve Councillor Figland on the basis of alleged lack of evidence.

It is evident from the “Investigation Report” by Schroter Attorneys, commissioned by the municipality, that nobody besides Figland was interviewed by the alleged investigator/s.

Despite Councillor Stag Cronje’s personal knowledge of the alleged incident, he sat back and allowed the Council to adopt a recommendation about which he had prima facie evidence to the contrary.

There is a public duty, and a duty in terms of the Councillors Code of Conduct, for the councillor to have offered his evidence to the Council or the Council’s

investigator.

“We have also drawn the Public Protector’s attention to Councillor Cronje indicating to the FLC that ‘according to his knowledge, [the alleged victim’s mother] was appointed in the office of the Executive Mayor of the Garden Route District Municipality, Mr Memory Booysen, in an attempt to keep her quiet.”

Issued by Brett Herron, GOOD: Secretary General