ANC call for intervention in IFP-led municipality

THE ANC and IFP in the Jozini Municipality are at each other’s throats, with both parties accusing each other of corruption in a move that is threatening to destabilise the council.

ANC leaders have called for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, to intervene and place the municipality under administration.

Jozini is governed by the IFP through a slender coalition with the DA and EFF.

On Friday, ANC members marched to the council, accusing the IFP of corruption.

“We suspect the ANC, led by former mayor Ndodephethe Mthethwa, wants to create tension in the council so that Dube-Ncube will view it as dysfunctional and place it under administration,” said IFP mayor Delani Mabika.

“They say we ‘mishandled’ R35 million of council money, which is not the case. That money was spent on projects that have stalled. We have suspended the municipal manager and we are investigating what happened.”

“The real corruption is the R92m that cannot be accounted for under their (ANC) leadership. A forensic investigation was conducted into the matter and we have never been able to table the report because they walked out every time,” said Mabika.

Mthethwa said they wanted intervention because the “situation is bad and is deteriorating every day”.

| RETSENE TSHIKANE, official photographer: RiTJ TRADITIONAL Zulu dancers perform during the 2018 Rumba in the Jungle megadance festival at Sun City, in the North West, at the weekend. The event attracted about 1 500 competitors from South Africa and neighbouring countries.