Durban - AN ANC councillor has been convicted of theft and sentenced to four years in prison, or to pay a R20 000 fine for stealing a mobile clinic owned by the Zululand District Municipality.
The DA said councillor Luke Nxumalo should be dismissed for stealing from the people who had elected him to office, while the KwaZulu-Natal MEC for Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, called for council to institute a hearing to investigate the appropriate action.
Sizwe Mchunu, the DA leader in KZN, said there was no need for Nxumalo to go to a hearing. “He must be dismissed with immediate effect. If the ANC respects the rule of law and if the ANC is a party of integrity, they will dismiss him. He has stolen from the very people who elected him to represent them,” he said.
Mchunu said there was no need for the matter to be heard by a committee within council, and there was no decision that could supersede that by the courts.
Dube-Ncube said councillors had a code of conduct which they needed to live by.
“In light of this court judgment, I see it fit that the municipality should commence with a process which will lead to the establishment of a committee that will interrogate this issue so as to ascertain whether this councillor has not violated the code of conduct which all councillors have to observe,” she said.
She said the committee would investigate if Nxumalo’s actions had brought the municipality into disrepute, and said it was council which would determine the necessary action.
“It is important that the municipality acts swiftly to ensure that it does not suffer further reputational damage as a result of this incident,” said Dube-Ncube.
The ANC’s provincial secretary could not be reached for comment on Thursday night.
Daily News