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A Cederberg DA councillor has been ordered by the Western Cape High Court to stay away from the ANC executive mayor who he allegedly attacked earlier this month.
Yesterday, mayor Jonas White won an interim interdict application to prevent councillor Jimmy Barnard from harassing him in any way.
White alleged that earlier this month, Barnard had attacked him with a rock outside Velddrif. Gee also accused the councillor of stalking him and of taking photos of his car and family.
“The interdict says Barnard must cease stalking, threatening, intimidating, assaulting or sending me SMSes. He must not interfere in my duties as executive mayor,” White said.
“I’m happy. Although I felt threatened by Barnard, at least the court has given me some relief.”
The return date for the application is January 26.
Barnard’s version of the incident is that he was defending himself after White stabbed him in the eye with a pen.
Barnard, a former chairman of the ANC’s Joe Slovo branch in Graafwater, said he had been on his way to Velddrift with his wife and two children when he had stopped at a petrol station in Laaiplek.
“I spotted Jonas driving a council vehicle and told my wife, who queried it because council was in recess and he could not have been on official duty,” Barnard said.
He had then followed the mayor and taken pictures of the car. Noticing that he was being followed, White had stopped and confronted him.
“He told me he would pose next to the car so I could get a proper picture of him.
“But when I went to take the picture he swore at me and punched me in the face. He lunged at me with a pen, stabbing me above the eye socket,” Barnard said.
To defend himself from further attack, he had picked up a rock and thrown it at White.
Both men lodged complaints of assault with police and had hospital treatment.
The ANC’s West Coast regional secretary, Theunissen Andrews, described the alleged attack by Barnard as “an orchestrated plan by the DA to get rid of the mayor”.
Andrews said that at the time of the incident, White had been on his way to Velddrift to meet developers and had been on official duty when he was confronted by Barnard.
“Jimmy followed him the whole morning. When he stopped at Laaiplek to get something to eat, his picture was taken,” he said, adding that White had been struck on the head when the two men were arguing over the pictures. – Cape Argus
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DA councillor attacked me – Cederberg mayor