Crucial Nquthu meeting postponed after ‘security concerns’

Security concerns have forced the meeting that was to finally elect office bearers at the Nquthu Council to be postponed.

KZN Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) said the meeting has been postponed to a later date.  Spokesman, Lennox Mabaso, did not elaborate on what the security issues were.

“As Cogta, we are determined to facilitate the long overdue election of municipal office bearers at Nquthu but we also consider the personal safety of all stakeholders to be paramount so we note that today’s council sitting had to be cancelled,” said KZN MEC for Cogta Nomusa Dube-Ncube.

“In a very short space of time, our intervention has restored order. We have been looking forward to this meeting in anticipation of a positive outcome at Nquthu, however, the security of all stakeholders is also of paramount importance and cannot be compromised. We cannot ignore security advice and our view is that we are better safe than sorry,” said MEC Dube-Ncube.

KZN Cogta has placed the Nquthu municipality under administration in October after the council failed to elect its office bearers on five previous occasions.  The Council became deadlocked after the August 3 elections in which the DA/IFP/EFF coalition narrowly won from the ANC.  However, after an EFF Councillor was dumped by his party in favour of another candidate, the Council became stalemated after the sacked EFF councillor took his matter to Court.  The IFP/DA/EFF have accused the ANC of using Cogta to ensure that Nquthu stays out of ‘IFP coalition hands’.

Last Friday, KZN Cogta held an imbizo at Nquthu where MEC Dube-Ncube updated the community on the progress achieved since the start of the department’s intervention in the municipality. The MEC also expressed hope that the council would soon elect its office bearers but pledged that the intervention would continue as long as necessary.