UPDATE – Zandile Gumede’s resignation received, says ANC KZN

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal has confirmed it received Zandile Gumede’s resignation as mayor, along with the rest of the ANC executive members in the eThekwini and Msunduzi councils.

After a day of seeming delays, ANC provincial spokesperson Ricardo Mthembu confirmed that Gumede and other senior members have now stepped aside formally.

This came after the party made sweeping leadership changes to the executives in those councils earlier this month following a special provincial executive committee (PEC) meeting on the future of the two municipalities.

Acting eThekwini mayor Fawzia Peer will continue to act in the position until mayor-elect Mxolisi Kaunda, the current transport MEC in the province, is sworn and voted in by the council.

Mthembu said this would happen at a council sitting before the end of the month.

Belinda Scott, the former finance MEC in the province, will become deputy mayor.

Earlier, a spokesperson for the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal confirmed that resignations for party members asked to step down from public office are coming in.

“Resignations have been coming in. I am not aware of the details of who submitted and who has not. Officials are in a meeting now. Once they are done, we will let [the public] know,” ANC spokesperson Ricardo Mthembu said.

Last week, the party also announced it would suspend members and councillors who marched to the eThekwini and Moses Mabhida regional ANC offices.

Gumede was suspended and subsequently fired from her position following a two-day special meeting of the ANC’s provincial executive committee (PEC), which enacted the recommendations of the provincial working committee (PWC) that she be recalled.

Until two months ago, she was the chairperson of the eThekwini region, the ANC’s biggest region in the country.

Gumede was initially placed on special leave after she was arrested on corruption charges related to a Durban Solid Waste tender. She is currently out on R50 000 bail.

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