Johannesburg - The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday said it will not allow service delivery to the residents of KwaDukuza to be held to ransom by African National Congress (ANC) factionalism.
KwaDukuza residents have been protesting since last week, demanding service delivery.
DA spokesperson Dean Macpherson said the party is appalled at the current power battle playing itself out in the KwaDukuza Municipality which has resulted in the municipality "shutting down" due to executive committee and full council meetings being called off for the month of June.
"It is not right that the entire KwaDukuza Municipality is being held hostage by warring ANC factions in the region which threatens the very financial viability of the municipality which in turn will affect service delivery, from town planning applications to basic services.
"Because of these factions within the ANC, the Executive Committee has not sat, and worse, an important meeting to discuss Capital projects in the electrical department has been cancelled after the municipality returned R18 million to National Treasury in the previous financial year for its failure to spend this money to resolve outstanding electrical connections to poor communities as well as fix the 600 broken street lights.
"It is alleged that the protest comes from the ANC’s alleged intention to reappoint the ANC Youth League’s former Secretary, Musa Zondi who was found guilty by the court for murder and kidnapping back to his position as Secretary. Zondi has subsequently appealed his conviction and is currently out on bail," said Macpherson.
Macpherson said it is a sad state of affairs that the municipality has come to a standstill due to internal factions of the ANC. The Auditor General recently expressed his opinion that political interference at the local government level is why so many municipalities have adverse findings in their audit outcomes and KwaDukuza is proving him to be entirely correct.
"Further to this cancellation of EXCO and council meetings, we have been informed that future council meetings are postponed indefinitely leading to a state of paralysis in the municipality," said Macpherson.
The KwaDukuza municipality, however, said that everything was back to normal and that all of its offices were open and fully operational.