DURBAN - THE DA in uMngeni said it would file papers in the Pietermaritzburg High Court on Wednesday to force the acting municipal manager, Sandile Buthelezi to call a special council.
The party had given acting manager Buthelezi until Monday to call a meeting where new the municipality leadership would be sworn in, following a dramatic collapse of the inaugural meeting on Friday.
Mayor-elect Chris Pappas told the Daily News on Tuesday that the party was busy preparing court papers to file on Wednesday since the acting manager had not notified the party about the new meeting. Pappas said the party waited until midday on Tuesday to hear whether Buthelezi was going to announce the date of the new meeting, but since he had not done so the party felt it should continue with the court process it had warned him about on Friday.
On Friday the councillors found the suspended municipal manager Thembeka Cibane in the front row preparing to preside over the meeting. The DA objected to her presence reminding her that she was not supposed to enter the municipal premises as per the condition of her suspension but she refused, arguing that she was no longer on suspension. The meeting collapsed after DA and EFF councillors walked out.
A source within the ANC who was there on Friday said it seemed clear that Cibane’s presence was planned.
“When we saw Cibane inside the hall we asked how she gained entry at the gate, where was the security to stop her, but it became clear that this was organised. We have since discovered that it was a deliberate plan to sabotage the sitting,” said the ANC member, who alleged Buthelezi was aware of the plan.
Buthelezi denied plotting to sabotage the sitting and said this was an attempt to tarnish his reputation and assassinate his character.
“The allegations are totally and wholly untrue. Whoever is peddling such lies about me is being mischievous,” said the acting manager.
Meanwhile, ANC branches have called on the councillors whom they claimed cost the party the municipality, to step down. According to ANC members who attended the meeting at Howick West Hall on Sunday, the decision was taken that former speaker Thulani Mthalane, Zine Dlamini and Silungiso Buthelezi must vacate their seats immediately or the party must recall them.
The members said the three councillors caused the ANC to lose to the DA in the recent local government by supporting and protecting the suspended municipal manager Cibane who was suspected of corruption. Cibane was eventually suspended after the Special Investigation Unit released a report which implicated her in siphoning off municipal funds through irregularly awarded Covid-19 relief tenders.
Daily News