Durban - The ANC in the Far North Region is insisting that it is still in charge of the Umkhanyakude District Municipality in northern KwaZulu-Natal despite claims by the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) that it has summarily dethroned them.
The rebutting of the IFP’s claim of the municipality comes after the ANC on Tuesday was allegedly overthrown through a vote of no confidence during a council meeting which is now being disputed.
The ANC did not attend the meeting.
According to IFP’s Innocent Mkhwanazi, who is one of the senior leaders of the party in the district and the “new deputy mayor”, a council meeting was called where Tim Moodley was elected the mayor and Petros Madlopha as the speaker.
That follows the reconstituting of the council where the IFP got three more councillors, thus gaining an outright majority.
While the IFP was still celebrating the “victory”, the chairperson of the ANC in the region, Siphile Mdaka, who is also the “district mayor,” said he was still in power.
Mdaka disputed the IFP's claim that it had taken over the municipality through a vote of no confidence. He said the meeting was illegally convened, and it did not meet the required quorum as only 17 councillors were present.
"I am still the mayor of the district. What happened today was illegal and in violation of all laws governing local governments," Mdaka said.
UPDATE: ANC deployees in the Umkhanyakude district municipality in KZN are insisting that they are still in power despite claims by the IFP that it has dethroned them. "Speaker", Solomon Mkhombo, said Tuesday's meeting was illegal, all decisions taken are null & void. @DailyNews
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) May 4, 2022
Solomon Mkhombo, the council’s “speaker” who is also from the ANC in the region, gave a detailed account of what transpired on Tuesday.
He said the IFP wrote to him on Saturday requesting a council meeting, and even though it was a long weekend with no staff, he took the initiative to respond to them.
Furthermore, Mkhombo said he alerted the IFP that it was jumping the gun because there were still legal issues with the issue of Mtubatuba, which gave them an upper hand in the district.
“No one was refusing to convene the meeting they requested. For them to have legitimacy, everything should be done according to the law. We are not a banana republic,” Mkhombo said.
Mkhombo added that the IFP must know that all the decisions that were taken during the council meeting on Tuesday “amount to zero”.
“S (Siphile) Mdaka is still the mayor, Z (Zodwa) Mtshali is still the deputy mayor, and I am still the speaker of the council.”
Daily News