The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal has welcomed the resignation of six councillors in the uMzumbe municipality on the province’s south coast.
The councillors were suspended by the party last year when they defied the ANC and voted with the opposition to remove the ANC mayor.
The six councillors have announced they will be joining the uMkhonto we Sizwe party.
The troubled uMzumbe Municipality came into the spotlight last year when members of the community took to the streets calling for urgent intervention to resolve the instability. Infighting within the municipality was hampering service delivery.
Continued squabbles among ANC councilors led some to vote with the opposition. This resulted in the provincial ANC leadership suspending seven of its councilors.
Former speaker of Umzumbe Municipality, Sbonelo Maphumulo says the councillors were not satisfied with how the ANC was dealing with corruption in the municipality.
“One of the reasons there is no stability within the party now is the party has made the environment not be conducive for the councilors to be able to perform their duties so one of them (reason) which we’re just fighting for corruption that’s it. So, we are against the corruption there’s corruption up to the core in that Umzumbe municipality now when you turn to question such things then you become an enemy from the party that we were from the ANC.”
Maphumulo says the mismanagement of the municipality is one of the reasons for these resignations.
“The administration runs the show there, ours as the councilors is simple, we just pass the budgets and allocate and whatever. The administration decides what to do and if they feel like that councillor, they don’t want that councillor you must forget no service delivery will go your way. So those are the problems that we’re facing.”
Last year, the ANC announced the expulsion of former speaker Sibonelo Maphumulo after a disciplinary process. The ANC in the province has welcomed the resignation of the councillors.
ANC provincial secretary, Bheki Mtolo says “We are not worried at all and if they say they know of any corruption we are asking them to go to the police and open cases they must go to the public protector, they must go to the SIU and whichever government structures that deal with corruption. What we’re happy about is that we will be going to by-elections where we will put people with integrity to represent the ANC, not those who want tenders and want to take things by force.”
By-elections will have to be run to fill the vacancies in the six wards.
