MEC locked out of booked council chamber in Nquthu intervention row
CO-OPERATIVE Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Sipho Hlomuka was forced to use an open parking area to announce the intervention into the Nquthu Municipality after he was locked out of a booked council chamber.
The incident comes as the IFP slammed the intervention as a ploy by the ANC, in collusion with Cogta, to usurp political powers from the IFP-controlled municipality – an accusation that has since been rebutted by the two.
Hlomuka said he was forced to use the parking area to address a handful of councillors following “the actions by some who locked the chamber which was booked to be the venue for the meeting”.
He said the meeting was attended by only ANC, DA and NFP councillors, without any sign of IFP councillors.
“The main reason behind the intervention (which is in terms of Section 139 of the Constitution) is the failure of governance on the part of the Nquthu council, including several irregular appointments of senior officials with financial consequences for the municipality and the failure to adequately ensure that the control environment is improved in order to prevent maladministration,” he said.
“Our disagreements with this council date back to 2017 when Nquthu irregularly appointed its municipal manager, chief financial officer and director: planning and development. These appointments were challenged in court, where the municipality lost. Not only were these appointments irregular, they also resulted in irregular expenditure,” said Hlomuka.
“Similarly, the Nquthu council has in other instances failed to take reasonable steps to prevent unauthorised and irregular expenditure. It has also failed to investigate such expenditure and hold management or any person accountable for causing such expenditure,” said Hlomuka.
Council speaker Mbongeni Mnguni said IFP councillors could not attend the meeting since they had previous public engagements and this had been communicated to Hlomuka’s office.
“There is currently a promo running on the radio informing the public about our inspection visits to local schools. I wrote to the MEC informing him that since the adverts telling people about these visits were already booked at a cost before he requested to meet us yesterday, we could not cancel the visits to attend his meeting,” said Mnguni.
“I asked that the meeting he requested be set for Friday, at least. But a letter from his office indicated that he insisted it be held yesterday,” he said.
He added that a special council meeting would be convened today in which the MEC’s letter about the intervention would be considered.
The IFP slated the move as an “agenda and obsession by Hlomuka and the ANC leadership in destabilising IFP-led municipalities”.
“What is even more unfortunate is that MEC Hlomuka uses taxpayers’ money for unnecessary legal costs to advance their course. This is evident by their action of taking Nquthu Municipality to court over the municipal manager issue,” said IFP provincial chief whip Blessed Gwala.
ANC provincial spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela described the IFP’s accusations against Hlomuka and the ANC as ridiculous, saying there were municipalities under the ANC leadership which had been taken over by Cogta in terms of the same administration as in Nquthu.