Durban - The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has started to make headway in its last push to remove the ANC from leading the uMkhanyakude District Municipality which it claims it got to lead through dubious electoral means.
The latest efforts to remove the ANC came after KwaZulu-Natal Deputy Judge President, Isaac Madondo, ruled last week that the council meeting of the Mtubatuba Local Municipality of November 23, 2022, was invalid and set it aside. The ANC’s Mbongeleni Gina was elected mayor. However, his reign was short-lived when the IFP regrouped and removed him and his leadership team.
Also declared invalid by the Madondo ruling was the election of five councillors from the local municipality who were later sent to the uMkhanyakude District Municipality to represent their political parties.
Through that process which has now been set aside by the Pietermaritzburg High Court, the IFP was cheated of three councillors, thus enabling the ANC and its coalition partners to take over the district municipality.
On the day of the sitting in November, a few weeks after the local government elections, one IFP councillor asked to take a comfort break just before the voting for office bearers. When the councillor came back, he was barred by security personnel who claimed that once the voting process has begun, no one is allowed to either walk in or out of the venue.
Another IFP councillor was dubiously denied the right to vote despite being in possession of a temporary identity document. This was even though he had been sworn in hours earlier.
In the end, the IFP lost by two votes and it was deprived of an opportunity to send three councillors to the district municipality.
After that, the IFP dashed to court to resolve the matters. However, they suffered a setback when it ruled that their matter was not urgent.
Five months later, the IFP has won the legal battle and its leader in the Mtubatuba sub-region, Killer Mkhwanazi, said on Monday the Independent Electoral Commission of SA (IEC) would conduct fresh elections that would give them the three district seats that would help them to claim them the district without any coalition.
He added that the ANC’s district mayor, Siphile Mdaka, and the other coalition partners of the party won’t be in office for more than 14 days.
ANC KZN spokesperson Nhlakanipho Ntombela referred queries about the party’s way forward to the leadership of their Far North.
The party’s regional secretary, Verus Ngcamphalala, who is also the former mayor of Mtubatuba, did not comment when called by the Daily News.
Daily News