DURBAN - THE DA in the uMngeni Municipality has given acting municipal manager Sandile Buthelezi until on Monday to call a special council meeting to elect the mayor or face legal action.
The inaugural council meeting collapsed on Friday after suspended municipal manager Thembeka Cibane arrived and demanded to chair the meeting. DA mayor-elect Chris Pappas objected to Cibane’s presence and asked her to leave as she was still suspended, but she apparently refused, saying she was no longer under suspension.
She told Pappas that her suspension had lapsed because the council had failed to charge her within the required 90-day period after suspension.
After the heated exchange, the DA and EFF councillors walked out of the meeting and then took their oaths as councillors at the Howick Magistrate’s Court offices.
Pappas told the Daily News that the party’s lawyers had written to the acting municipal manager to urgently call a special council where Pappas would be officially elected mayor, along with his deputy and speaker.
The party accused Buthelezi of failing to act against Cibane. Buthelezi said he was aware that he would chair the meeting as acting manager, but allowed Cibane to illegally preside over the meeting. The DA said Buthelezi had until on Monday to either comply or face legal action.
The speaker-elect, Janis Holmes, said the DA had laid charges of trespassing against Cibane, saying the DA was alerted that she was in the municipal offices on Thursday and had contravened the rules which stipulated that she was not allowed on municipal premises while on suspension.
Police spokesperson Colonel Thembeka Mbele said she would only be able to confirm the case on Monday.
The DA has appointed Sandile Mnikathi as deputy mayor while Holmes was promoted to a speaker’s position. She was the party caucus leader in the previous term. The DA won the municipality by 13 seats followed by the ANC with 10, while the EFF received two.
Cibane was suspended in August by the council after the Special Investigating Unit (SIU) recommended that the council take disciplinary action against her. The SIU found that she squandered close to R20 million in municipal funds on irregularly awarded tenders for Covid-19 relief. The SIU also found she misled the Department of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) that the council sat and approved the budget, but there was no council meeting.
According to the SIU, Cibane was found to have altered council meeting minutes which Cogta relied on to approve the use of council money. The SIU also recommended criminal charges be laid against her and the Daily News has learnt that the National Prosecuting Authority would apparently soon act against her.
Attempts to reach Cibane for comment were unsuccessful. Her presence at the council also shocked ANC regional task team leader Mandla Zondi, who distanced his party from her actions. Zondi said that had ANC councillors alerted him that the suspended manager was coming to the meeting, he would have asked for clarity.
“I was also shocked to see her at the council meeting but it had nothing to do with my party; that’s why we distanced ourselves from her actions. And it was an administrative issue which must be sorted out by the incoming new leadership.”
Buthelezi had not commented by the time of publication.
Daily News