Reports of Mthonjaneni mayor axed ‘pure fiction’ – COGTA
KZN COGTA MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube rubbishes reports of the IFP deposing Melmoth mayor.
IN a shock move, Mthonjaneni Municipality Mayor, Councillor Maureen Ndlangamandla, was axed during a Council meeting on Wednesday.
‘A vote to have Ndlangamandla removed was passed during our full Council meeting and I will be replacing her with immediate effect,’ said IFP Ward 4 Councillor, Mbangiseni Biyela.
‘Six IFP and NFP Councillors attended and the vote was passed. The other five ANC councillors ran away. Quorum was good (sic),’ he said.
A witness to the vote, who asked not to be named, said armed bodyguards took up positions outside the Council chambers and police were called to monitor the situation.
Biyela said both Mayor Ndlangamandla and Mthonjaneni Municipal Manager Raymond Nguni had been present at work, but had ‘run away’ shortly before Council convened.
‘I cannot comment now on the issue, or why she was removed,’ Biyela said.
IFP National Chairperson Blessed Gwala said that IFP leadership had been unaware of the move.
‘We [the leadership] were not behind the move. However, it shows that the ANC and NFP coalition reached in 2011 is feeble, and that people are against it.’
‘The Councillors were doing what they felt necessary as they are in direct contact with people on the ground, and we are not part of the process.’
‘The ANC were undermining the democratic process,’ said Gwala, responding to rumours that the move could be disputed owing to the absence of Ndlangamandla and other ANC councillors. That is how the ANC behaves.’
Conflicting reports
The KZN MEC for the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Nomusa Dube-Ncube meanwhile has rubbished these reports.
‘We would like to report that the political leadership of Mthonjaneni is the one that was democratically elected in the 2011 local government elections,’ Dube-Ncube said in a statement.
‘Any claims of the municipality changing hands are nothing but pure fiction if not day dreaming.’
Dube-Ncube reiterated that Ndlangamandla was and still is the Mayor, while any purported change of leadership in the municipality ‘would have been illegal as the as the proper legislative channels were not followed.’
‘Our officials have been deployed to the municipality to clarify the confusion sowed by the IFP,’ she concluded.
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