ANC no-show at special council meeting
ANC councillors in the Msunduzi Municipality have been accused of “abandoning” a special council meeting to prevent embattled municipal manager Sizwe Hadebe from “being disciplined”.
About 30 ANC councillors failed to attend a special council meeting on Wednesday that was meant to discuss the possibility of having Hadebe suspended.
The municipality has about 78 ward and PR councillors.
Opposition parties said some of the ANC councillors were not absent from work, but in fact had been “hiding out” in the car park in the municipal precinct.
Hadebe has been under fire for the past few weeks following the emergence of a recording in which he is alleged to be colluding with another city official to fix interview scores for a municipal job.
“Some of the ANC councillors were not absent, but were in the car park,” said DA caucus leader Jerome Majola.
“They knew that if they were absent the council would not be able to form a quorum, and that would collapse the meeting. This was to prevent us from discussing the issue.
“It is clear that they will do anything to protect him. As the opposition, we believe his alleged conduct is a serious violation of the code of conduct,” he said.
He added that since the recording had emerged around April, they had been working hard, with little success, to get the ANC-led council to act against Hadebe.
IFP councillor Thinasonke Ntombela said the councillors’ conduct was unacceptable.
“What happened was a disgrace. It is shameful that councillors in the capital city could act in this manner.
“These councillors knew there was going to be a discussion about the matter of the municipal manager,” he said.
But ANC chief whip Trueman Magubane said the absence of the councillors was not an attempt to avoid council duties, but was rather a scheduling issue.
“Some councillors were attending to party matters, and about one or two were not well. About two were writing exams,” he said. He added that a new special council meeting would be scheduled next week.