The new mayors of eThekwini and Msunduzi will be known by Thursday next week and the ANC in KZN will on Wednesday start meeting with regional task teams from the two regions to get their input on who should be the new mayors.
The provincial top five will also hear from other regions like Lower South Coast and Harry Gwala before deciding who should be the mayors.
This follows the sacking of Zandile Gumede and Themba Njilo on Monday evening.
Taking questions from the press on Tuesday shortly after confirming the sackings, the provincial secretary, Mdumiseni Ntuli, assured residents of the two cities that they would soon have new mayors and service delivery won’t be disrupted as there would be a smooth transition.
“We will have our first meeting tomorrow, a meeting that will deal with what we do with eThekwini and uMsunduzi. It would the beginning of that discussion. It would be a meeting as well that will allow regions to make submissions to concretize vacancies that we are dealing with.
WATCH: ANC KZN provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli says they will soon start a process to appoint new mayors for eThekwini and Msunduzi. Video: Sihle Mavuso/Politics Hub.
“Who is the mayor of Harry Gwala, who is the mayor of Ugu , who is the deputy mayor of Newcastle and who is the deputy mayor of Newcastle who is the speaker of Newcastle. So that meeting is also going to finalize those matters tomorrow [Wednesday],” Ntuli said.
Ntuli said the sacked mayors and their executive committees will stay in office until next week Thursday but he said they cannot report for duty on Wednesday until their matters are resolved. Ntuki did not clarify how this would be done.
Speaking about eThekwini, Ntuli said the reason they decided to fire Gumede was the persistent billing crisis where some people get incorrect bills, uncollected litter like in uMlazi where the issue has been dragging for years.
He denies that she was being purged or she was fired for her fraud and corruption charges.
He also said it worried that ANC that the city of eThekwini was not utilising grants yet people were struggling to get social housing.
Turning to the issue of Dr Ntuthuko Mahlaba, the mayor of Newcastle, Ntuli said the committee looked at his matter, as Mahlaba is facing murder charges, but has not finalised its report, therefore Mahlaba will remain in office until further notice.