Will DA allegations ‘sink’ municipal ship?

In May this year, Zwelihle Godfrey Dhlamini began his duties as the new AbaQulusi municipal manager. Dhlamini, who was previously director of Corporate Services and acting municipal manager of Ulundi Local Municipality, is now being asked for answers by a political party and a union (SAMWU) after rumours have been circulating that his qualifications are ‘fake’.

In an interview with the Vryheid Herald, Dhlamini gave his side of the story…
At the age of 19, he joined KwaZulu SAPS, where he spent 14 years. After that, he ventured into politics and became a councillor in the year 2000.

The Democratic Alliance (DA) chief whip in AbaQulusi, Swelakhe Shelembe, says that in the wake of the allegations, they are calling for a skills audit to verify all AbaQulusi employees’ qualifications to determine whether they qualify and are suited to be in the positions they are occupying.

A statement was also released by the political party, stating that the DA in AbaQulusi Municipality has written to the IFP municipal speaker, Cllr Michael Khumalo, to request that resolutions taken during Tuesday’s Finance Committee meeting be declared unlawful. The DA has requested the speaker to urgently investigate and act decisively against the IFP mayor, Cllr Mncedisi Maphisa, who is also the chairperson of the Finance Committee. The DA says that the mayor has twice muted a DA councillor who was joining ‘virtually’.

It is said that the IFP mayor muted the DA councillor throughout the meeting, following the DA’s attempt to question him about the misuse of municipal funds. “The DA cannot allow ratepayers’ money to be spent in this fashion and not be accounted for. This is a deliberate act to eliminate the DA caucus from partaking in the crucial deliberations concerning finances of the municipality and avoid accountability by the mayor. The DA also wanted to question the poor revenue collection and lack of a turnaround strategy to deal with electricity theft, since this still remains a matter of concern, as well as poor service delivery while the municipality is paying exorbitant amounts to service providers.”

The Vryheid Herald contacted AbaQulusi Municipality regarding the allegations and the statement issued by the DA. The IFP released a media statement stating that the IFP refutes the allegations made by SAMWU that the municipal manager does not have the qualifications to hold office. “We are aware of the letter that SAMWU has written to the municipal manger, demanding answers from him regarding his qualifications.

It is unfortunate that SAMWU then quickly ran to the media without a response from the municipality. The allegations are shocking to say the least. After the interviews, we had a council meeting where all parties agreed that Mr Dhlamini met all the requirements; even the report that was tabled before us indicated that he was indeed a suitable candidate. Attached to that report was the confirmation of his qualifications from SAQA. However, we welcome investigations of his qualifications so that this matter can be put to rest,” said IFP whip Derick Khumalo.

The IFP also responded to the allegations of Cllr Shelembe being muted at the meeting and said that ‘as the IFP, we work well with the DA in the municipality. Therefore there was no need for Cllr Shelembe to be muted in the meeting. However, we do agree with Cllr Shelembe that this needs to be investigated. On the matter of the mayor and deputy mayor utilising the said vehicles for their personal and political gain, we are not aware of that. We would appreciate it if Cllr Shelembe can give us more details relating to these allegations,” added Cllr Khumalo.

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