ANC in push to end council fiasco

DEPLOYEES of the ANC in Joe Gqabi convened a meeting with party leaders yesterday with the aim of finding lasting solution to the impasse over the plan to change the Walter Sisulu municipality leadership.

The municipality was identified as one of the four Eastern Cape municipalities which needed changes in its senior councillors in order to have stability and progress in delivering services to its ratepayers.

This was after the ANC’s provincial executive in Calata House received subcommittee reports which revealed that in Walter Sisulu municipality there are inefficiencies and financial non-viability, as well as problems of political leadership. This saw cooperative governance and traditional affairs MEC Fikile Xasa deploying an administrator to oversee the running of the municipality this month.

Others were Port St Johns in OR Tambo district, Sarah Baartman in Chris Hani district as well as Mnquma Local municipality in Amathole district.

But in both Mnquma and Walter Sisulu the ANC provincial leaders are not receiving cooperation from the affected councillors who have to resign first before new people get elected into the senior council positions.

In Mnquma, the ANC deployees as led by provincial executive committee member Mziwonke Ndabane, were locked out of the municipal grounds two weeks ago. They were there to brief the ANC caucus on who should go where following the resignation of Mquma Mayor Thobeka Bikitsha to make way for the changes.

Both Mnquma speaker Zibuthe Mnqwazi and council chief whip Zakhele Mkhiva refused to resign.

A similar fallout is playing out in Walter Sisulu as council speaker Kholekile Lange also refused to follow ANC orders and resign earlier this month. The defiance of ANC councillors in both municipalities is viewed as being in line with the campaign to challenge the legitimacy of Oscar Mabuyane-led PEC.

But ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi said all differences would most likely be ironed out in the meetings with stakeholders including the REC in Joe Gqabi this week.