Durban - Pressure is mounting on the ANC-run eThekwini municipality to immediately cut the salary of incarcerated ANC councillor, Muzimuni Ngiba.
It has emerged that while in custody for more than 10 months, he has earned slightly over half a million rand (R541 681).
On Wednesday the chairperson of ActionSA in KwaZulu-Natal, Zwakele Mncwango, who is also a councillor of the party in the municipality, led a picket in front of the Durban City Hall and delivered a petition to the municipality’s Speaker, Thabani Nyawose.
He wants Nyawose to exercise his powers and cut the purse strings that keep on feeding Ngiba, a monthly salary of R54 000 (excluding benefits).
NEWS: ActionSA, led by its chairperson in KZN, Zwakele Mncwango, has handed over a memorandum of demand to eThekwini municipality Speaker, Thabani Nyawose, to cut the strings and stop the salary of ANC Councillor, Muzimuni Ngiba who is in custody facing murder charges. pic.twitter.com/9SazdC9EhP
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) May 3, 2023
Ngiba was arrested for the October 2021 alleged murder of Siyabonga Mkhize who was the ANC’s candidate for ward 101 (Cato Manor and Mayville).
Ngiba attended Mkhize's funeral as one of the chief mourners and went on to represent the ANC in the by-elections that followed. After Mkhize’s killing he was arrested for that murder and he is currently awaiting trial in custody after he was denied bail.
Mncwango wants Nyawose to act now and apologise to the people of eThekwini that Ngiba’s matter has gone on for almost a year without being resolved.
“ActionSA is outraged to learn that an ANC member, Mzimuni Ngiba, ward 101 councillor in the eThekwini Municipality is still receiving his remuneration from the municipality, despite being behind bars for the past 12 months on a charge of murder.
“Therefore, we decided to picket outside the Durban City Hall and hand over a memorandum of demand to the Speaker of the Municipality, Thabani Nyawose, demanding the immediate removal of the councillor from the Metro.
“It is puzzling how this has gone undetected for almost a year, while the councillor has missed more than three council meetings in the Municipality, which is a violation of the Code of Conduct for Councillors under section 4.2.
“Therefore, the Speaker must publicly apologise for his failure to act timeously, which has resulted in the payment of R541 681 which is the total gazetted remuneration package of eThekwini Metro councillors. As a result of this, this amount should be regarded and recorded as wasteful expenditure by his office,” Mncwango said during his party’s picket.
Mncwango also wants eThekwini to remove another ANC councillor who has been on the governing party’s step aside rule for months, leaving his ward leaderless.
Themba Mnguni, the councillor of ward 54 (parts of Inanda township), was arrested for the 2021 drive-by shooting where three ANC members attending a meeting to elect a candidate ahead of the November 2021 local elections were killed.
Mncwango said Nyawose must also act against Mnguni.
“We have demanded that the Speaker gives an explanation about the status of the ward 54 councillor, who was also arrested for murder in February of 2022, and is out on bail.
“Just like Ngiba, he too has been receiving his remuneration for more than a year, despite not doing community work as expected from a councillor,” Mncwango said.
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