Bitou Local Municipality, seated at Plettenberg Bay, dismissed municipal manager Lonwabo Ngoqo in 2012 after a finding of serious financial misconduct. Seven years later, in February 2019, the coalition council led by Mayor Peter Lobese of the Active United Front with the ANC reappointed him — and paid him R781,184 on his return, a payment the Auditor-General later classified as irregular.
Western Cape Local Government MEC Anton Bredell went to the Labour Court to have the appointment set aside and won. On 12 February 2021 the Labour Appeal Court dismissed the municipality's appeal in Bitou Municipality v Minister for Local Government, Western Cape (CA14/2019) [2021] ZALAC 1, holding the reappointment unlawful. The council took the matter to the Constitutional Court, which dismissed it; ratepayers called the litigation "a waste of taxpayers' money". Ngoqo left office on 31 December 2021.
In August 2021 a contractor, Dr Anele Hammond, alleged in an affidavit that Ngoqo and community-services director Thozamile Sompani had demanded R700,000 to award a R33.5 million Qolweni housing contract. Both were placed on special leave. Ngoqo: "The allegations are not true, they are a lie." Sompani: "The whole story has been fabricated." Lobese: "everything contained in that affidavit is lies." The complainant withdrew her civil case, saying she would pursue a criminal route; no prosecution has been located. Between June 2021 and the November election the hung council did not sit at all.