ANC-led Impendle municipality in new crisis after new mayor and Speaker suspended hours after election
ANC leadership in KwaZulu-Natal has again failed to resolve Impendle Municipality impasse.
Image: ANC
The embattled ANC-led Impendle municipality outside Pietermaritzburg has been thrown into a new crisis following the suspension of the newly-elected mayor and the Speaker.
The 10-seat municipality has been without a mayor since July last year after ANC’s Buyisani Mlaba was ousted through a vote of no confidence. The motion was filed by the EFF and all ANC councillors, except the mayor, who abstained.
However, after an agreement with its caucus last week to bring a mayoral candidate from outside, the ANC leadership in KwaZulu-Natal directed the council to call a meeting to elect the new mayor and a Speaker on Friday.
To the ANC leadership’s surprise, the ANC councillors defied the party by electing their own mayor and Speaker, not the candidates that the leadership had directed them to elect. The ANC responded by suspending four councillors who were instrumental in defying the party.
In a statement issued by the ANC on Sunday, it announced that the four councillors Kho Dlamini who was elected the mayor, Zibuse Dlamini who was elected a Speaker were among the suspended councillors. The party said the four would not participate in both party and municipal activities in the name of the ANC.
The suspension means the municipality has no political leadership. Although it still forms a quorum since it was left with six councillors, however, it is unclear how it is going to function with no governing party.
The ANC had six councillors but now left with two, IFP and EFF have two apart, leaving the council with no leading party to govern. In terms of the rules in the absence of the mayor, deputy mayor or Speaker, the municipal manager can call and chair the council meeting.
ANC coordinator in Moses Mabhida region (Pietermaritzburg) Zet Luzipo defended the party’s decision, saying the party had been patient enough with the councillors since July last year and the party had to finally act against their continued defiance.
“Had we continued to tolerate such behavior we were not going to have an organisation. These councillors totally undermined not only us as the regional and the provincial leadership but the national leadership which ultimately appoints mayors for the ANC-controlled municipalities,” said Luzipo.
Before voting on Friday, the ANC had brought in Nokulunga Ndlovu who was sworn-in as a new councillor then be elected a mayor. However, ANC councillors elected councillor Kho Dlamini and Zibuse Dlamini as both mayor and the Speaker, respectively, in defiance of the ANC's directive.
Since July last year, several attempts to elect a new mayor by the ANC provincial leadership have failed. The ANC reportedly wanted to bring in someone from outside, however, the councillors resisted, allegedly demanding that the new mayor be appointed from within, leading to a deadlock.
The ANC’s dilemma was that all its councillors except Speaker Sizwe Ndlela are ward councillors so for the ANC leadership to bring an outside candidate, Ndlela had to resign. He has been refusing which resulted in the stalling of the process to elect a new mayor from outside since July last year. He resigned on Monday paving the way for a new councillor to be sworn-in.
The election of a mayor on Friday was in line with the KwaZulu-Natal Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) who issued a directive to the council to elect the mayor by Thursday. Last week, Cogta MEC Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi visited the financially struggling municipality
The MEC’s visit was prompted by the municipality’s failure to pay workers their salaries. Buthelezi cited the absence of the mayor as one of the main reasons for the municipality’s financial collapse and directed the council to elect a new mayor.
willem.phungula@inl.co.za