Karoo’s fallen Prince goes down blustering

TRUMAN Prince is defiant in the face of defeat, but it looks as though the controversial politician’s reign as mayor of Beaufort West is over.

The DA won the Karoo municipality with 48.99% of the vote. Truman’s ANC took 42.21%.

Prince said he was pinning his hopes on a potential coalition with the Karoo Democratic Force, which came third with 5.18%, but KDF leader Noel Constable said his party preferred to work with the DA.

The DA and ANC have six council seats each, leaving the occupant of the KDF’s single seat holding the balance of power.

“It’s not a total loss for the ANC . . . now it’s a matter of who is going to work with the one kingmaker, the Karoo Democratic Force,” said Prince.

He said many in the KDF were former ANC members who had struggle credentials and would not be hard to convince.

“For now, it’s not over until it’s over. The DA is talking with the KDF and we are talking with the KDF. Even if it happens that they don’t want to work with us, I am not a leader because I am a mayor, I am a born leader. I don’t need a [mayoral chain] to be a leader,” said Prince.

He hit the headlines this year when a letter surfaced in which he appeared to request that a company sympathetic to the ANC be awarded a tender so that it could contribute to party campaign funds. He was also accused of assaulting a female traffic officer, which he denied.

Asked if his scandals had harmed his campaign, he said “any publicity is good publicity” — although “sometimes the ANC has too many squabbles”.

The KDF’s Constable said his party had been approached by ANC provincial secretary Faiez Jacobs and Western Cape legislature Speaker Sharna Fernandez, from the DA, to discuss a possible coalition.

“I believe the DA will be the better party to work with regarding our plan for service delivery and what we stand for,” Constable said.

“But we also know that when you work with the DA they want to run everything — that’s why we need to be careful.” DEFIANT: Truman Prince

I am not a leader because I am a mayor, I am a born leader