Durban - The Inkatha Freedom Party on Monday accused KwaZulu-Natal's cooperative governance MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube of failing to act against disruptions caused by members of the African National Congress in various hung municipalities.
IFP national chairman Blessed Gwala accused of Dube-Ncube of siding with ANC councillors who were disrupting meetings at hung municipalities, such as the Nquthu Local Municipality and the Jozini Local Municipality. “Since the first meeting to elect office bearers in Nqutu, ANC members have been acting in an unruly manner with clear objectives of ensuring that such a process does not take place. MEC Dube-Ncube has been aware of these ANC shenanigans, yet she has deliberately avoided to take decisive steps. Instead she keeps on sanctioning the postponement of these meetings.”
He said that he believed that the ANC was attempting to make Jozini and Nquthu ungovernable.
Officer bearers at the municipality were elected on the second meeting after the August 3, local government elections.
The IFP has 15 seats, the Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters each have one seat. The ANC has 14 seats and has aligned itself with the National Freedom Party, which has two seats. The IFP, Democratic Alliance and the Economic Freedom Fighters, who have a total of 17 seats, claim that the ANC and two NFP councillors left the meeting, but because they had a majority decided to proceed with electing the office bearers.
However, the ANC and the NFP claim they were informed by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative that the meeting had been postponed.
The department claims that the sms' postponing the meeting were not sent by them, but by the incumbent municipal manager. However, the municipal manager Bongi Gumbi preside over the election of the office bearers.
The ANC took the matter to the Pietermaritzburg High Court and before the matter was heard the parties reached an out of court settlement to hold the meeting again to elect the office bearers.
The agreement was made an order of the court and the new election was supposed to take place on Friday.
Mfanje Mbango, and chairman of the IFP's Political Oversight Committee, said he attended that meeting on Friday, which again failed to elect office bearers. “In the case of Nquthu, what happened on Friday was disgusting. We started off by opening with a prayer. All of a sudden ANC activists stood up, they shouted some slogans. They sang some political songs, swearing, singing that 'we take our guns and shoot'. Those were the things happening in the chamber.”
He said a senior legal official from Dube-Ncube explained the effect of the court order to all in the Nquthu chamber.
He said that the ANC asked for a 30 minute break to caucus their members. They then returned. “After coming back into the chamber, the NFP, who is their political partner, also asked for a 30 minutes caucus. They also went out. They were basking in the sun. They were not caucusing. They came back. They continued to disrupt the whole sitting, until the legal adviser told them it was a legally constituted sitting pronounced by the court.”
He said the ANC and NFP still refused to accept that the meeting was legally constituted. He said then that the municipal manager and the official from the Electoral Commission of South Africa met and then adjourned the meeting to Tuesday.
KwaZulu-Natal chief electoral officer Mawethu Mosery confirmed on Tuesday evening that he would be attending the meeting on Tuesday in Nquthu.
Dube-Ncube is scheduled to hold a press briefing in Durban on Tuesday on the state of the province's municipalities.
African News Agency