Cash-strapped Impendle Municipality must appoint mayor by Feb 5 deadline - KZN Cogta MEC

KwaZulu-Natal Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi has given the Impendle Municipality's council a deadline of February 5 to appoint a new mayor.

Buthelezi, who conducted an oversight visit to the KZN Midlands municipality this week, was scathing in his criticism of the municipality's operations.

The Cogta department said the municipality is facing a deepening financial and governance crisis and had failed to pay salaries to councillors and staff in January due to the total depletion of municipal coffers.

In December, salaries were not paid to staff on time leaving many families to experience a bleak Christmas.

The MEC said the municipality has been operating without a mayor since July 2025.

He described this leadership vacuum as a dereliction of duty that has allowed administrative instability to go unchecked.

“A municipality cannot be a ship without a captain. This leadership vacuum has directly contributed to the current state of lawlessness and financial ruin we see today,” he said.

He issued a directive that a mayor must be formally appointed by Thursday, February 5, 2026.

All ten councillors have also been served with the Code of Conduct and must provide written reasons by the same date explaining why they should not be held personally liable for failing to exercise their oversight roles.

The MEC further flagged the gross mismanagement of R43.5 million in conditional grants. It was revealed that while critical service delivery projects remain unfinished, portions of these funds were diverted to pay operational costs like salaries, while other portions were sent back to the National Treasury due to a failure to spend them.

“It is a betrayal of the residents of Impendle that money meant for water, roads, and electricity is being sent back to Pretoria or used to cover administrative failures while our people continue to wait for services. This ends now,” the MEC added.

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