Should he stay or is he going to go?

The conundrum surrounding the ‘is he or is he not’ still the Deputy Mayor of Endumeni is still swirling around the corridors of municipal power.
Despite his party, the National Freedom Party, issuing a letter to the Independent Electoral Commission, IEC, on September 21, wherein it announces that Thandanani Mkhize is to be placed as their proportional representative candidate by Mfanafuthi Cele, Mr Mkhize is still ‘hanging on’.
At the October 27 Council meeting, Mayor Thulani Mahaye announced that the Council had received a letter from the NFP regarding him being replaced.
However, he claimed that ‘the official letter from the IEC still had to be sent’.
The Council’s legal manager, Advocate Zane Qwabe, was asked to read out the relevant legislation where it was confirmed that because his party had replaced him, he (Mr Mkhize) is no longer a Councillor.

“Certain people from the NFP have been attempting to get rid of me for months now. My case is now in the High Court.

At that meeting, Deputy Mayor Mkhize was asked to wait outside the Chamber.
The Council then ruled that he was no longer a Councillor. He was called back and asked to vacate his seat. He did but Mr Mkhize was not happy.
The next day, he was again back in his office at the municipality and is said to still have the use of bodyguards.
He told the Courier that he ‘did not know what he had done to his party’.
“Certain people from the NFP have been attempting to get rid of me for months now. My case is now in the High Court.” He was ordered to leave the Chamber until his Court case is finalised.
However, the matter came to a head last Tuesday when Mr Mkhize again filled his position at the Council meeting.
Acting Speaker, S Dlamini, was asked by Councillor Anthon Raubenheimer to make a ruling on the validity of Mr Mkhize’s presence at the meeting.
Councillor Raubenheimer later told the Courier having ‘Mr Mkhize there as part of a decision-making process is like having any citizen there…. There is a danger that all resolutions made while he is part of Council, following his expulsion, will be declared null and void.”
After a caucusing, Speaker Dlamini ruled that Mr Mkhize would have to leave even though Mayor Mahaye referred to a ‘judgement that was still awaited’.
He did leave but was not impressed. Meanwhile, sources said Mr Mkhize was still on the payroll as a Deputy Mayor and member of the executive committee.
With Mr Mkhize out of his seat, the Council will have to reconstitute the executive committee, which must comprise of three members. It is not clear if the new NFP Councillor, Mfanafuthi Nsele, would automatically take the seat.