After almost two months without a political head, the ANC is expected to finally elect a new mayor of the Impendle Local Municipality on Wednesday.

The tiny 10 seat-municipality outside Pietermaritzburg has been without a mayor since early last month after ANC councillors assisted the opposition to remove ANC mayor, Buyisani Mlaba. In the council, the ANC has six seats while the EFF and IFP have two each, however, it was reported that five ANC councillors abstained during the motion of no confidence against Mlaba and he was eventually ousted.

The ANC Moses Mabhida regional task team convener Nathi Mdladla confirmed that a council meeting is scheduled for Wednesday where a new mayor is expected to be elected, however, he said this will depend on the meeting that will be held by the provincial leadership to come up with a name of person that will be elected by the council.

“We are in the last stages of the process. The provincial leadership held a special meeting on Friday to finalise the candidate list and other matters and will meet again tomorrow (Monday) to agree on one name, then the name will be presented to the ANC caucus in the council,” said Mdladla.

Last week it emerged that the name of convicted killer, former prison boss Russel Ngubo, was among the three that was being discussed by the province. Ngubo has already confirmed his availability for the position.

An ANC member in Impendle, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said Ngubo was favoured by all party branches to become a mayor and branches are currently lobbying the ANC to respect the wishes of the members on the ground. The source said he heard that Ngubo’s name was among those submitted to the provincial structure by the regional task team for consideration.

Ngubo is currently the ANC’s ward 1 branch chairperson, a position he held at the time of his conviction in 2005.  He was convicted and sentenced to 25 years for the murder of IFP members during political violence between the ANC and IFP, however, he only served 12 years and was released on parole in 2017.

In 2015, then Justice and Correctional Service Minister Michael Masutha confirmed that Ngubo was part of 149 prisoners who had been recommended for presidential political pardon but that Ngubo did not qualify at that stage as he had not served his minimum detention period to qualify for consideration.

Mdladla refused to be drawn into discussing the three names his region has proposed to the provincial leadership, saying the region submitted those names and was awaiting the province to give them the name of a successful candidate.

Last week, ANC provincial spokesperson Fanle Sibisi said the party is in the final stages of its internal processes to appoint the mayor of the Impendle Municipality. 

willem.phungula@inl.co.za

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