MEC to probe Nquthu Council set-up after ‘illegal meeting’ elects posts

Council positions voted in at Nquthu last week were illegally appointed, says the provincial Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department (Cogta).
The Speaker, Mayor and Deputy Mayor were all voted into office without ANC and National Freedom Party representatives. They say they were notified the meeting was postponed.
Provincial Co-operative Governance officials say the municipality has seven days to reconvene and hold another election for office bearers.
Cogta MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube said: “The way we view that, is that, that was an illegal or unlawful practice that happened there at Nquthu.”
The ANC and NFP say they received an e-mail and SMS from the KZN Co-operative Governance Department, stating the Nquthu council meeting on Monday had been postponed, but Cogta says it has proof to the contrary.
“It’s actually not Cogta that sent (the messages), it was the municipal manager.
“On Monday, on the day of the meeting, Cogta confirmed with the municipal manager to say we hear that other people are saying the meeting is on. Is the meeting on or not? And the manager confirmed the meeting is not on.
“He sent an SMS to that regard, the IEC as well, all of us knew there was no meeting.”
The Nquthu municipality is a hung council, with both the ANC and NFP having 16 council seats.
Together, the IFP, DA and EFF hold 17. They claim the other two parties walked out of the meeting, but the ANC denies this.