Durban - THE ANC in KwaZulu-Natal and the Office of the Speaker are awaiting high court papers from the IFP which lay out the official opposition party’s reasons for wanting former eThekwini mayor Zandile Gumede removed from the provincial legislature.
IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa said they had approached the Pietermaritzburg High Court to overturn Gumede’s appointment as a member of the KZN Legislature.
“Our numerous calls on the ANC in KZN, and our plea to the ANC’s national leadership to intervene on this matter, have fallen on deaf ears. Therefore, we are now taking this fight against the irrational appointment of Zandile Gumede as an MPL, to the courts. We have exhausted all other avenues and it is now up to our bid in the High Court to settle matters once and for all,” he said.
Gumede, KZN speaker Nontobeko Boyce, ANC secretary-general Ace Magashule and President Cyril Ramaphosa are among the respondents in the matter. Gumede and 16 co-accused are facing charges of fraud, corruption and racketeering for a Durban Solid Waste tender that was worth more than R400 million.
She was granted bail of R50 000 in the Durban Commercial Crimes Court.
This matter is still with the court and a trial date is yet to be set.
Hlabisa said the ANC’s refusal to remove Gumede’s style of “failed leadership” was robbing the people of the province. “We would not allow the ANC to recycle failed leaders at the expense of the province and the country. Our country and the province cannot afford this expensive decision by the ANC in KZN to hold on to the disgraced former mayor of eThekwini,” he said. IFP lawyer
Lawrence de Klerk told the Daily News yesterday that Gumede’s appointment was “irrational” and should be set aside.
He said they would seek for her to pay back the salary she had received so far. De Klerk said the court papers were sent to the respondents. Gumede declined to comment and referred The Daily News to ANC KZN spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela.
“Until we get court papers and go through them, we can’t comment because last I checked the IFP were saying because of eThekwini corruption charges, she should not have been elevated to the legislature,” said Ntombela.
Spokesperson for the Speaker’s office Nomusa Phungula said they had yet to receive the papers and their r e s p o n s e w o u l d depend on the contents of these documents.
Daily News