Durban — Four IFP councillors in the Abaqulusi Local Municipality were expected to lose their seats on the municipality’s executive committee following the recommendation of their removal by the special ethics committee two weeks ago.
The committee, under the chairmanship of DA councillor Swelakhe Shelembe, found mayor Mncedisi Maphisa, deputy mayor Mandla Mazibuko as well two other party councillors guilty of misconduct.
The committee then recommended that the mayor be fired from his position as well as the councillor, while Mazibuko would lose his Exco seat and become an ordinary councillor for 24 months. The two other councillors would serve 12 months as ordinary councillors before being eligible to be reappointed to Exco.
Mazibuko and the two other councillors were punished for refusing to testify against the mayor before the committee, which was viewed as misconduct. Shelembe said on Tuesday was the last day the four served as Exco members.
Shelembe said Maphisa’s dismissal from the council as a councillor must be carried out by the Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC Bongi Sithole-Moloi.
The MEC previously wrote to the council speaker to initiate action against the mayor after obtaining a video clip of the mayor allegedly instructing managers not to hire anyone without his approval.
The MEC alleged that in the clip, the mayor was also heard instructing the managers to dismiss a consultant company employee who was doing work for the municipality.
This, according to the findings, was interference since politicians were not allowed to have a say in the employment of staff or issuing of tenders.
The company disappeared after this incident, but Shelembe said his committee recommended a further probe. He said the municipal manager had testified that the company had voluntarily left the work to pursue greener pastures in Australia, but to date, he had not provided the committee with proof.
“We believed that the mayor’s utterances had an effect in the disappearance of the company, so we want to know whether the company was told to leave, as per the mayor’s order. We believed that the mayor misled the committee, that’s why we want further investigation,” said Shelembe.
The MEC has not yet clarified whether she would act on the recommendations. KZN Cogta spokesperson Siboniso Mngadi had not responded to questions sent last week. A reminder was also sent, but he had not responded by the time of publication.
Maphisa, whom his party removed as the mayor, also did not respond as he had promised on Monday. Attempts to reach the other three councillors and the municipal manager were unsuccessful.
IFP provincial chairperson Thami Ntuli also did not respond to the message sent to him on Monday.
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Daily News