Opposition parties have criticised the eThekwini Municipality for postponing a full council meeting in which new office bearers would have been elected. The Democratic Alliance (DA) municipal leader Nicole Graham says councillors have not been given any reason for the cancellation of Thursday’s council meeting.
It is believed that the African National Congress’ (ANC) provincial leadership has been called to meet with the party’s national leadership. The party previously announced that the Transport MEC Mxolisi Kaunda will replace Zandile Gumede as the eThekwini Mayor while Mzimkhulu Thobela will take over the reigns in the Umsunduzi Municipality.
Graham says she believes the delay might be due to the fact that the ANC does not have enough vacancies in the eThekwini Council to bring in four new deployees.
“I believe it was the City Manager who instructed the Secretariat to postpone the meeting; the ANC does not have enough vacancies to bring new council and I am told that the mayor has been at Luthuli House, and if there is an emergency, there is no one to make decisions… and currently there is no EXCO (Executive Committee) to get on with the work of the council. The ANC has put its infighting first instead of focusing in the making the city to run.”
Graham says the political uncertainty in eThekwini is hampering service delivery.
“There is a sharp decline in service delivery and basic services of the municipality have been abandoned in favour of the ANC politics. The way it stands now is that nothing can be done, we cannot spend the budget, we cannot continue with the projects. It has a severe impact on the functioning of the municipality because the council ultimately decides how the council operates and how they must service money.”
