WSRA chairman comes under fire from former exco members
WESTDENE – No work was being done during the Covid-19 lockdown yet money was reportedly leaving the account.
Chairperson of the Westdene Sophiatown Residents Association, Dauw Steyn, is facing serious allegations by former members of the association’s Executive Committee, following their mass resignations in July this year.
The Westdene Sophiatown Residents Association (WSRA) received its CIPC certificate which was issued on 30 January 2018 with the registration number 2018/046868/08. According to the members that resigned from the executive committee, and the CIPC, the WSRA is registered, but non-compliant due to the fees not being paid. The responsibility to pay these fees was, according to the Exco members, in the hands of the chairperson Dauw Steyn once it had been registered. Steyn confirmed to Northcliff Melville Times that the WSRA was in fact non-compliant.
Another issue for the former Exco members is the Constitution of the WSRA. The constitution of the residents association exists but only in draft form. According to the former executive members, which consist of Rosa Vucevic, Barbara Macdonald, Vishal Shrivastava, Bridget van Oerle and Inga Molzen, “The draft Constitution has previously been submitted to the chairperson (Dauw Steyn) for ratification, a process as yet incomplete, or rather, that no notice of ratification has been received since.” In June 2017 the inaugural meeting of the WSRA was held and Dauw Steyn, Rosa Vucevic, Bridget van Oerle and Barbara Macdonald were present at this meeting as ‘Exco attendees’ along with seven other residents.
Exco members volunteered themselves to the portfolios of the residents association but the chairperson and deputy chairperson roles were elected by the members and Steyn and Vucevic, respectively, stepped into their new positions. Since then there hasn’t been an executive committee election in the WSRA, which should take place annually. Another major concern for the former members was that they recently discovered that amounts below R100 have been withdrawn several times since February 2020, and they have not been able to establish from Steyn what the purpose of these withdrawals was. They stated, “Over the first six months of this year, there would just be money going out. We did not do community work this year due to Covid-19 and Dauw was the one responsible for the account.”
According to the former-members, Steyn is the only person with access to the WSRA bank account. Northcliff Melville Times has approached Steyn for information regarding the withdrawls, which he has promised several times, but has at the time of publication, failed to deliver. The former exco members also noticed, through cellphone notifications, that attempts to withdraw money from the WSRA’s FNB account would be unsuccessful due to insufficient funds available. Although they have requested information regarding these transactions from Steyn, he is yet to respond to what these purchases were for and provide financial records which disclose the account’s activity during this time. Steyn explained that he has been in the process of gathering the information which includes documents, which he said, were stolen along with his laptop in a home break-in in June 2020. He has repeatedly stated he would publish this information publicly as soon as it is ready.
Dauw Steyn is still to respond to Northcliff Melville Times on matters of the WSRA’s registration, state of affairs, its constitution and related issues. This is a developing story. An update will be made once one has become available.
