DA, IFP lash MEC over Nquthu decision

OPPOSITION parties have lashed out at Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Nomusa DubeNcube for putting two municipalities under administration, with the DA calling for minister Des van Rooyen to overturn the decision.

The IFP and DA described as sinister and unethical DubeNcube’s decision to put the Nquthu Municipality and the uMzinyathi District Municipality under administration.

“Minister Van Rooyen must do the right thing and disapprove the MEC’s decision,” said DA provincial leader Zwakele Mncwango.

Dube-Ncube’s decision came after the two municipalities had, since the local government elections, failed to elect office bearers.

The uMzinyathi municipality could not elect its leader before Nquthu finalised its political impasse, which emanated from EFF members who had been involved in a Pietermaritzburg High Court battle over who had the right to a council seat.

Suspicious

The EFF had agreed to vote for the IFP in order to prevent the ANC from leading the Nquthu Municipality, but had decided to replace its proportional representative councillor after being suspicious that he had intended to vote for the ANC. The councillor went to court to challenge the decision.

The DA, which had also pledged to vote for the IFP, blamed the ANC for the dispute.

“Her (Dube-Ncube’s) decision to put the municipality under administration will benefit her political party (ANC),” said Mncwango. “There is no need to put the municipality under administration because the courts have just made a ruling on the EFF matter that relates to Nquthu Municipality.”

IFP national chairman Blessed Gwala said he would today put questions to the legislature for Dube-Ncube to explain the real reason for her action. He alleged Dube-Ncube wanted to keep control of uMzinyathi to protect the interest of an owner of a company that supplied water in the area, and was stalling for more time to pave the way for some DA, IFP and EFF councillors to vote for the ANC.

Dube-Ncube’s spokesman, Lennox Mabaso, dismissed the allegations as ludicrous.

“The issue of a service provider is a calculated move on the part of the IFP to hide its own inability to reconstitute the newly elected Nquthu municipal council during three months since the 2016 local government elections. This has had a knock-on effect on the functionality of the entire uMzinyathi district,” he said.