Alarmed Umdoni councillors put Umzinto licensing office under further scrutiny

At Umdoni Municipality’s recent exco meeting, two of the major concerns were the Umzinto licensing office and test centre and the contractors in the area in KwaZulu-Natal, the South Coast Herald reports.

The Umzinto licensing office and test centre had been accused by Umdoni councillors of bribery and corruption. Since the last council meeting, the centre asked why they  had not been consulted, and several driving schools were said to be unhappy with the situation.

A member of the municipality claims she had tried communicating with the spokesman for the centre, who then asked that a relationship be built between the two departments in the future for better communication.

The public has also taken to social media, with some claiming to have known about it for quite some time, but that nothing had really been done to find a permanent solution.

Forensic investigations are still under way by the provincial department of transport.

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The second matter dealt with the contractors appointed for projects in the area. For a while now, the municipality said it had noticed a pattern of projects, once started, taking forever to be completed. “Since 2016, not a single project has been finished,” said mayor Thabani Dube.

After in-depth discussion with other councillors, it was discovered that the problem might not just be the contractors, but the consultants, as they were in charge of finding the most suitable contractors.

There had also been times when no reports or feedback had been received from consultants, which councillors found alarming.

The matter was still being looked into.

This was also the first exco meeting attended by the new acting municipal manager, Bongani Alfred Xulu as his acting appointment commenced on March 28 for a period of three months.