ANC back at the helm in uMkhanyakude DM
MONDAY’S ruling by the Pietermaritzburg High Court will see the ANC leadership, with Siphile Mdaka as mayor, return to the helm at the uMkhanyakude District Municipality.
This after the IFP ousted the ANC at a 13 June council meeting, which prompted the ANC to approach the court.
Spokesperson of the ANC in the Far North Region district, Sandile Sibiya said the court on Monday ruled that the IFP had not followed the correct processes in light of the rule nisi previously handed down by the court.
This stated that only ‘ordinary’ council meetings should be convened pending the outcome of a 3 August court hearing on who is the legitimate leadership of the council.
‘What we are expecting now is that the work of delivering services to the people should continue,’ Sibiya said.
Sibiya conceded that the political instability at the municipality is adversely impacting service delivery and accused the IFP of being its cause.
‘Since the ANC was elected following last year’s local government elections, the party has not been the one to remove the IFP from power by force but it has acted in accordance with the law.
‘It shocked us that despite the rule nisi the IFP called the meeting on 13 June and because we respect the law we did not take part in that sketch. We are asking ourselves what is it really that the IFP wants when the people want service delivery,’ Sibiya said.
The IFP’s Petros Madlopha, who was elected as the Speaker of the council at the 13 June meeting, said he maintains that the rule nisi does not take away his party’s constitutional right, as the majority in the council, to petition for a sitting to remove
the current leadership and elect new ones, as was the case on 13 June.
Madlopha said he is of the view that the Constitutional Court would come to a different finding than that of the Pietermaritzburg High Court handed down on Monday, ‘because that judgement goes against the Constitution’.
‘The rights of the people of uMkhanyakude are being cut off because they had voted in their numbers for the IFP to lead,’ Madlopha said.
He added that in his many years of experience as a councillor he had not come across a definition of an ‘ordinary’ council meeting in any of the acts relating to municipalities.
Madlopha further said what is of concern is that Monday’s ruling means the budget will not be passed at the district municipality because the ANC, with only 11 councillors out of 35, will not meet the quorum to do so and this will have a negative impact on service delivery.
Madlopha added that a separate court ruling which stated that the six councillors from Mtubatuba municipality who had initially been elected to serve at the district municipality had not been elected correctly, which led to a recent sitting for this to be done was an indication that the leadership at uMkhanyakude should be elected anew.
According to Madlopha, the IFP caucus and the party’s leadership will meet soon to discuss a
way forward.