Good national chairperson Matthew (Matt) Cook has been implicated in a ploy to kick a fellow member and former City of Joburg chair of chairs Lloyd Phillips out of the Patricia de Lille-led party.
Phillips was expelled from the party early this month after being accused of failing to secure the signatures of 7,000 electorates who are going to vote for the nascent organisation in the next national and provincial general elections scheduled for May 29 this year.
The plot to elbow Phillips out of the party was discussed in a meeting he attended with Gauteng Good leaders in Joburg shortly before his expulsion.
In the meeting, whose audio recording was leaked to us, party leaders, namely Ulinda Lotz, Berlyne Mbere, and Simphiwe Moyo, among others, could be heard discussing Cook, saying he was the one who cooked the plan to get rid of Phillips.
He took this action while serving as the party’s campaign manager before assuming his current role.
In the recording, an unidentified leader is heard telling Phillips that he warned his colleagues to protect each other.
“Here you are, Berlyne; what did I say? I said we need to cover and protect.”
Mbere answered: “I just said that time when you and Matt were going around together with yourself (Lotz) to each and everybody trying to put information, whatever it was, against the chair (Phillips), my suspicions were raised immediately.
“I am the one who informed the chair. You (Lotz) said that it was going to work to my advantage to turn against the chair… I said I won’t do that.”
Lotz replied: “I said to Matt as well that I didn’t want to be part of that. He sent me an apology and said, ‘I am sorry you didn’t know what that was all about’.
Phillips replied that he was shocked about the plot because of what he had done for the party.
“Now, as I find out about Matthew going around with Ulinda to get reasons (to get Phillips out of the office), I then asked, how can that happen after what we have done?”
In the recording Moyo asked Lotz if she would rat on Cook.
“Are you willing to write a report coming forward with the information about him (Cook) promising things in return for giving people employment?”
To which Lotz retorted and said that Cook used her, and she has reported him to the party secretary general, Brett Herron.
“I don’t need to hear the question.
“I am a witness to what has been happening against the chair because Matt used me. I escalated this to the SG.
“I became tired of Matt manipulating everything,” she said.
Good party secretary general Brett Herron said: “Phillips was removed purely for non-performance. Good assesses the performance of all its public reps. This is assessed objectively and is measurable.
“Phillips was given the opportunity to make representations on non-performance and Phillips did not deny his non-performance in his representation. In fact, he conceded and admitted non-performance.”
Phillips said: “I was given a constructive dismissal by Good, as this whole thing was engineered. Now Ulinda sent a message in the WhatsApp group telling us that if her ambitions of being a councillor fails, she is going to sue people for defamation. I was given a raw deal by the party but I have moved on.”
Lotz said: “I did not work with Matthew in collusion of getting rid of Lloyd.”
Cook refused to comment.
