Anike Making False Statements to the Information Regulator, Claiming That No Information Was Refused
Post 2 – 30 January 2026
Cheryl addressed numerous emails to the WCID Chairperson, Anike Nel, raising specific issues, and requesting specific information. The WCID Chairperson only responded to 7 of the in excess of 70 issues raised, and did not even provide full responses when she did reply. The email record (shared via the public Google drive folder) shows that the WCID chairperson did not respond clearly and in good faith. Instead, her emails were dismissive and ignored Cheryl’s discussion points. Even when Cheryl pointed out specific issues which had not been addressed properly, the WCID chairperson would insist, that she had in fact provided an answer, which, as can be seen by the correspondence in the addendums, is clearly not correct. Finally, Cheryl emailed the Chairperson, calling out her false statements, and what appeared to be a deliberate attempt to conceal material facts from the residents.
Cheryl ultimately discontinued attempts to get information, as it became clear that the WCID Chairperson was unwilling to provide any cogent, and good faith response. It was also clear that the WCID Chairperson had no qualms in making false and baseless statements in defence of board decisions. Despite a lack of expertise and the absence of any independent expert input to corroborate her claims, the WCID Chairperson continued to adopt positions that were wholly unsupported by objective scientific evidence. (See addendums, C3, C4 and C7).
One example is the WCID Chairperson’s insistence that the term LOCAL INDIGENOUS is the same as INDIGENOUS. An analogy would be that instead of saying 4x4 Hilux, you can simply say “Hilux”. These terms are not interchangeable, as “Locally indigenous” is a narrower classification than “indigenous”.
Having hit a brick wall, Cheryl submitted formal PAIA requests to WCID management for the information. Of the 72 PIAA requests submitted by Cheryl, responses were only received to 7, and even these responses were not comprehensive.
Cheryl then escalated the matter to the Information Regulator, to whom the WCID Chairperson responded:
“The WCID provided answers after every interaction between Anike Nell and the complainant (Cheryl Quantrill) as well as between WCID Manager and the complainant. Information was never refused”.
As is readily apparent from the summary set out in the addendums and “Schedule of PAIA requests and outcomes”, nothing could be further from the truth.