The fate of the nine Umvoti (Greytown) Local Municipality councillors in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands now lies with the MEC for cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta), Bongi Sithole-Moloi.
This is after the rules and ethics committee of the local municipality recommended on Wednesday that all the councillors (seven from the IFP and two from other parties) who are accused of walking out of council sittings and later absenting themselves be fired.
However, their fate now lies with Sithole-Moloi, who has given the nod to the recommendations. The MEC recently upheld a decision to dethrone and demote four IFP councillors in the Abaqulusi (Vryheid) Local Municipality for various misconducts.
Among those facing the axe are Petros Ngubane, the IFP mayor of Umzinyathi District Municipality, and Gabriel Malembe, the former IFP mayor of Umvoti who was ousted last month. Former Speaker Thando Dlamini, who was ousted at the same time as Malembe.
NEWS: The rules and ethics committee of Umvoti local municipality has recommended that all 9 IFP councillors who are accused of walking out of council sittings and later absenting themselves be fired. However, their fate now lies with the MEC for CoGTA in KZN, Bongi
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) July 27, 2023
Early this month, the council speaker, Mfundo Masondo from the ABC (Abantu Batho Congress) asked the councillors to explain their conduct by July 18, and they did.
They gave various reasons, including security concerns, for their departure before council sittings ended.
Another one claimed that he asked a former manager in the mayor's office to tender an apology on his behalf and that of other IFP councillors, and the manager forgot.
Notably, the final report of the committee found that most of them fabricated their reasons for their conduct.
It took exception to the explanation given by Dlamini, saying her response borders on perjury. In the end, the committee recommended that they all be sacked and Sithole-Moloi will now have the final say on the matter.
“Her (Dlamini) response is totally flawed and is a material misrepresentation of facts … the mistruths are beyond inexplicable, but boarder (sic) on perjury,” the committee found and then recommended that she be dismissed.
The committee found that Malembe’s explanation of why he walked out of the June 21 meeting was not plausible enough to even be considered.
“The IFP councillors were granted a 10-minute caucus (break) and failed to return; as such, they staged a “walk out,” the committee said before recommending his expulsion.
The committee disputed Ngubane’s version that he was asked by the Speaker to leave the meeting on June 21. It also said that his claim that there was another meeting for the district municipality was unlikely.
Sithole-Moloi's department had not yet commented on whether it had received the recommendations of the committee at the time this report was compiled.
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