GOOD politician and Drakenstein Municipality councillor Peter de Villiers is the party’s new member of the Western Cape Provincial Legislature (MPL).
The party made the announcement 10 days after it fired its former national organiser and MPL Shaun August.
Former Witzenberg deputy mayor Felicity Klanz was also sacked, together with August on May 12, after they were found guilty of misconduct.
The deputy mayor position has been advertised after it was declared vacant.
GOOD secretary-general Brett Herron said: “Peter de Villiers is a humble and honest leader, with no interest in tenders or political games. He is going to Wale Street because he wants to contribute to developing a province that is fairer, with a place in the sun for all its people.”
Herron also described De Villiers as a leader of “calibre and integrity”, whose presence would “positively impact the work of the provincial legislature”.
De Villiers’s was chosen followed interviews over the weekend, a few hours after the Western Cape High Court struck off the urgent roll applications by August and Klanz to challenge their expulsion.
The court heard that the matter would be reinstated on the roll at a later stage.
De Villiers resigned from the Drakenstein council in July, 2022 for personal reasons – three months after a tragic family incident. He returned to the party in January, 2023.
Herron said De Villiers led GOOD’s campaign in the 2021 local government elections in Drakenstein in which the party obtained four seats in the council.
In 2022, he took up the position of coach of the Deaf Springbok Sevens rugby team.
De Villiers said it had been “a great honour” to serve the Drakenstein community as a councillor.
“Now I have the opportunity to serve the wider Western Cape community. I will use the same tools that have served me for many years: listening to others; considering what they say; and being constructive in my responses,” he said.