SANDILE MOTHA
THE Nquthu local municipality on the KwaZulu-Natal far north remains without an elected mayor and, according to residents, this is hampering service delivery.
The mayoral post became vacant in February this year after former IFP mayor Siyabonga Mabilabila Kunene was forced to relinquish his position after facing legal woes pertaining to a murder plot.
The municipal council moved to elect IFP councillor Nothile Zungu to fill the post in an acting capacity.
Zungu, also the deputy mayor, spent only three months in her new post before the IFP caucus, the majority party in the council decided to elect Zama Shabalala as the permanent mayor.
The ANC, however, took issue with the election of Shabalala, raising procedural matters and that the meeting to elect him was unconstitutional.
This resulted in the emergence of two mayors, Shabalala was handed the mayoral chain and recognised as the duly elected mayor while his colleague Zungu in the same party was recognised by the opposition.
The provincial department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs was subsequently alerted to provide relief and no deal has been brokered yet.
Two months has gone by and the ANC said it was worried that insistence that Shabalala occupy the mayoral office will lead to financial implications for the municipality in the long run.
“The self-imposed mayor is enjoying all benefits accorded for the post. We are worried that this will affect the municipality in a long run. We also concerned that resolving this issue was unnecessarily dragging on,” ANC chief whip, Johannes Motloung told Inside Metros this week.
Meanwhile, Cogta’s provincial spokesman Senzelwe Mzila said the department was dealing with governance issues faced by the Nquthu council.
“For now the MEC is allowing the municipality to deal with the matter internally,” he said.
Asked for comment, municipal speaker, Mbongeni Mnguni said the matter was sensitive and that the media and the public will be informed in due course on developments.
Although facing legal woes, former mayor Kunene is still an IFP councillor serving in the municipal executive committee (EXCO), the highest decision making structure of the municipality. Kunene is out on bail for allegations relating to a plan to assassinate rival ANC candidates leading up to the 2016 hotly contested Nquthu by-elections.
The National Prosecuting Authority suspects Kunene was a key mover who had conceived and hatched the murder plan. The plan was allegedly botched after one of the bodyguards who had known of the assassination plot spilled the beans. The IFP controls Nquthu with 19 council seats, ANC with 11 while the DA, NFP and EFF are tied at 1 seat each.
(Compiled by Inside Metros staff)