SANDILE MOTHA
OPPOSITION parties under the Umzinyathi District municipality on the KwaZulu Natal Midlands have joined forces to reject the proposed renaming of the municipality to Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
The municipal mayor Petros Ngubane announced last month that the district would be engaging in the process of changing the name of the municipality to the IFP leader, saying this was to recognise Prince Buthelezi’s role in the struggle.
But new political party, the Abantu Batho Congress (ABC) told Inside Metros this week that they would be opposing the renaming.
“As it stands, the district is failing in its constitutional mandate to provide residents with water. This has been a case long before the outbreak of Coronavirus and sadly has been left unattended in the midst of the pandemic,” said ABC President Philani Mavundla.
He said water woes in the district has been exarcebated by the failure of the district to pay service providers and improper allocation of funds.
“ We have irrefutable evidence that Eskom has not been paid by UMzinyathi which has compelled it to suspend it services. This is contributing to water woes. The municipal leadership should take the humane and appropriate step of directing all funds for the lavish renaming of the municipality and have them redirected to pay for creditors and suppliers,” added Mavundla.
He said the water famine in the district had reached human castrophe and was a threat to life, livestock and subsistence farming for villagers.
“ The municipality continues to resort to patching up the segments subjected to damage as opposed to doing an entire overhaul of the rapidly deteriorating infrastructure which has surpassed it lifespan,” said Mavundla.
Abantu Batho Congress was formed late last year as a splinter party defecting from the National Freedom Party.
If the UMzinyathi municipality succeeds in it plan to rename the district, it will be following in the footsteps of Dr Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma municipality, which was conceived after the 2016 local government elections following the merger of Ingwe and KwaSani municipalities under the Harry Gwala district.
Meanwhile, the United Democratic Movement (UDM) said the district cannot afford the renaming process and argues that there was no public consultation on the proposed name change.
“ As far as the UDM is concerned there was no consultation with the community, instead this is forced down their throats. The district is failing to fix 706 dysfunctional water pumps to the tune of R1.5 billion yet it has the audacity to splash scarce funds on a name change,” said party provincial secretary Boysey Gumede.
Gumede added that the municipality should priorities it’s skewed priorities and halt the proposed name change and redirect funds where they are needed most.
However, mayor Ngubane told Inside Metros that there was nothing untoward about the proposed renaming of the municipality.
“This is a proposal that we have put forward and will be engaged by relevant stakeholders. Anyway, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi is not the only political figure to have a municipality named after him. We all know his struggle credentials and for what good he has done for South Africa,” said Ngubane.
(Compiled by Inside Metros staff)