In what appears to be a vote of confidence in all 28 current councillors of the ANC in KwaDukuza Local Municipality, the ANC is set to appoint former Ilembe District Municipality Sduduzo Gumede and former KwaDukuza mayor Lindiwe Nhaca as deputy mayor.

The council will hold a special meeting on Thursday to elect a new mayor and deputy mayor after a month-long uncertainty following the provincial leadership’s decision earlier this month to sack mayor Ali Ngidi and his deputy Njabulo Cele.

The special meeting was confirmed by the regional task team coordinator Nkosenhle Mngadi. The special meeting was necessitated by Ngidi’s resignation on Friday after hanging on, which many regarded as defiance, because the ANC had directed that by last week the mayor should have been elected.

“We can confirm that the council will hold a special meeting on Thursday where a new mayor and deputy mayor will be elected. We can also confirm the current mayor tendered his resignation letter on Friday,” said Mngadi.

He refused to be drawn into who the party would be fielding as candidates for the positions between Nhaca, Gumede and Dolly Govender as they were selected for the two vacant positions, however, reliable sources within the party, said the party has opted to bring back Gumede for the mayoral position as well as Nhaca for the deputy mayor position, thereby overlooking all 28 current councillors.

Gumede was a district mayor in 2016 until 2021 then disappeared into political wilderness.

Nhaca was unceremoniously kicked out of her mayoral position in November last year by Mtolo who replaced her with the ousted Ali Ngidi through a vote of no confidence after she defied Mtolo’s orders to voluntarily resign.

In a surprise move, Nhaca’s name was forwarded to the provincial’s deployment committee alongside former Ilembe district Municipality mayor Siduduzo Gumede and current KwaDukuza Speaker Dolly Govender to choose the mayor from them. 

On July 2,  ANC provincial task team coordinator Mike Mabuyakhulu summoned the party caucus, where he presented the report and the recommendations of the team that the party had appointed in April to investigate the reported abuse of privileges by both Ngidi and Cele. 

Besides removing the pair from their positions, the ANC also ordered them to pay back the money they splurged on luxury vehicles since assuming office in November without council approval. The report that was presented to council in April showed that from November to February the mayor had spent R497,180.10 while his deputy had spent R527,720.13 which meant the municipality was paying R17,590 on the vehicle hire.

Furthermore, the ANC ordered Ngidi to pay for the fuel used by for mayoral car which was used to transport his family, particularly his children to school. 

Ngidi will also have to pay for the security firm that guarded his home which was also not approved by the council. It was reported that the Durban-based security company was billing the municipality R173,000 for eight guards that were stationed at the mayor’s house day and night. It is not clear for how long the company had guarded his home.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za

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