Cogta’s findings on Umdoni awaited
Last week, members of the ANC were part of a peaceful protest near the municipal offices to hand over a memorandum of grievances.
It has been weeks since Umdoni Municipality has been fully functional, and communities continue to grow restless and question when things will return to normal.
Over these weeks, workers downed tools multiple times, and there were community protests.
These matters drew widespread attention, and the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC, Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi, has since intervened.
The MEC met with the community at a protest on August 5 and was concerned at the inability of the municipal leadership to deal with the issues raised by the community.
He and his investigation team were part of a special council meeting at Umdoni Municipality to address the current Umdoni crisis on August 8.
He addressed the community’s service delivery failures and corruption allegations.
Buthelezi opened the meeting by stating, ‘All is not well in this municipality, and there are many issues which we’ve picked up that need attention’.
He also mentioned that he could see political interference in this municipality.
The mayor, Mbali Cele-Luthuli, and councillors were given an opportunity to speak and highlight some of the matters being experienced in the area.
This included issues of tools of trade, Scottburgh town hall being closed to the public due to people occupying this space, salary matters, water shortages, no joy working with the leadership, roads being a concern, the closing of the Umzinto test centre and more.
The MEC then stated it was clear that this is a ‘volatile’ situation and that Umdoni has compromised the community’s constitutional rights.
“Council hasn’t been proactive in engaging stakeholders to resolve issues,” said Buthelezi.
He also questioned why Umdoni has not established a working relationship with Ugu when many wards battle without water.
The Cogta team has been investigating the allegations made against the municipality, and while carrying out interviews with Umdoni’s senior managers, Buthelezi mentioned that the municipal manager was ‘too busy’ to be interviewed.
“The manner in which the municipal manager treated Cogta was not helpful to this investigation.”
“I have heard unbelievable stories from ratepayers, and I have interacted with stakeholders, and even Inkosis and I have established there is a crisis,” he added.
The investigation findings were meant to be produced last Monday, but there has been no feedback since.
Last week, members of the ANC were part of a peaceful protest near the municipal offices to hand over a memorandum of grievances.
They demanded that the municipality re-open and municipal services commence as they should, without political interference from some parties.
One of the protesters said that they want the investigations to be done properly and for transparency and accountability at the municipality.
A handful of protesters were seen wearing IFP T-shirts, but thereafter, the IFP district chairperson, Sfundo Ngwane, released a public statement saying that they distanced themselves from the protest as they were not consulted about this joint march.
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