DURBAN - WITH only just four months left before the local government elections, the ANC in uMkhanyakude District Municipality is set to remove IFP mayor Tim Moodley.
Moodley has been in power for just over two months after ANC mayor Solomon Mkhondo was booted out through a vote of no confidence in March.
The ANC wanted to remove Moodley through a motion of no confidence in Tuesday’s council meeting. The ANC lost power on March 11 when the IFP took advantage of the party’s internal squabbles and removed ANC mayor Mkhondo. The ANC boycotted that meeting because it apparently feared that there were some party councillors who would have voted with IFP.
The ANC filled the vacant speaker’s position with its councillor, Thokozani Ngema, last month.
The former speaker, Solomon Msane, was asked by the party to step down but remained as councillor.
The party’s provincial spokesperson, Nhlakanipho Ntombela, told the Daily News on Sunday that the party was adamant that it would seize back power from the IFP. He said the party would allow Mkhondo to go back to the position as a mayor.
“We are ready to return to power in uMhanyakude.We think Mkhondo should get back to his position,” said Ntombela.
IFP leader in the municipality councillor Makhosonke Sithole also told the paper that his party was confident that it would retain its municipality.
He said the IFP had also filed for motion of no confidence against the new speaker. Sithole said the speaker was elected in their absence so they don’t regard him as a legitimate one.
“Yes there are two motions tomorrow. They would have theirs and we would have ours, so we will see which one would succeed. We are working hard to keep the municipality under us because the ANC has failed the people here,” said Sithole.
He said besides the motions, his party would bring up the issue of R135 million that was removed from the main account and put in a new investment account without the knowledge of municipal manager Mxolisi Nkosi.
The manager confirmed that he had not approved the removal of the money to the account. The municipality spokesperson had previously said the money was not stolen but ring fenced so that it could not be used for other things except for water projects.
The IFP elected Moodley when it took over in March.
In the municipality the IFP has 14 seats while ANC has 16 and the EFF one.
Sithole said they were not worried about the numbers because there were ANC councillors who were not happy with how their party had been doing things.
At present the IFP is running the municipality, but the deputy mayor and speaker are ANC members.
Daily News