A MOTION to push through a proposal to accept the council’s ward delimitations for Knysna was defeated at yesterday’s sitting.

The council’s delimitations differ for all wards from the proposals made by the Municipal Demarcation Board (MDB) for the 2011 elections.

No debate on the topic was allowed at yesterday’s meeting, nor any motivation given for the council’s differing ward boundaries.

DA councillor Richard Dawson said the recommendations had been made available to councillors only late on Wednesday afternoon, which had not been enough time to study the document.

“A recommendation compiled and tabled for us to adopt, when the public participation process is still ongoing, is not acceptable.

“We have to comply with legal requirements. You cannot just push legislation through.”

Dawson told council speaker Victor Malosi that he needed to allow debate on the issue. However, Malosi said that because a motion to accept the new boundaries had been seconded, and a counter-proposal to reject the motion had also been seconded, he could not allow debate but had to take the issue to a vote.

After heated disagreement, Mayor Eleanore Bouw-Spies told Malosi: “Speaker, if they got the document so late, you cannot assume they have all read and understood the document. You need to be fair.”

Malosi agreed to defer the topic to a later special council meeting.

All comments on the proposals, including those from the public, need to be submitted to the council by December 10.

Dawson said: “Because our officials started the process so late, we sit with a time problem.”

Knysna now has eight wards and 16 councillors. With the growth in the number of voters, this has to be increased to 10 wards and 19 councillors for the 2011 municipal polls.

Sedgefield, which previously had been one ward that included Smutsville, Sizamile and Karatara, needs to be split into two wards.

The municipality presented the MDB’s ward proposal on November 17 and by the following morning had received support for it from the Sedgefield Ratepayers and Voters Association.

Association chairman Louise Hart said yesterday: “We feel the MDB has done a sterling job of keeping communities intact.”