The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) is disturbed by ongoing reports of political meddling within the uMngeni Municipality administration.
This after we were alerted to the ANC’s plans to remove acting uMngeni Municipal Manager, Mzi Hloba – also the Chief Financial Officer – in favour of a political deployee dispatched from the province’s CoGTA Department. Both officials and ANC politicians have indicated that the ANC regional body, backed by the provincial executive, are behind the plan.
The information presented to the DA by a number of municipal officials, as well as ANC politicians, is linked to the suspension of current Municipal Manager, Thembeka Cibane, and the findings of a damming Special Investigative Unit (SIU) report.
Insiders also report that the removal of the acting Municipal Manager/CFO is due to take place ahead of a Council meeting scheduled for later this week, where the SIU is expected to present damning information relating to others who may have been involved in the looting of municipal funds under the guise of Covid-19 expenditure. Our sources have also advised that the acting Municipal Manager/CFO has been accused of being “too strict” and wanting to “do things the right way.”
This latest debacle forms part of ongoing power struggles that have engulfed the ANC within the uMngeni municipality, which have seen service delivery all but collapse and municipal finances take a turn for the worse.
It is inevitable that the CoGTA deployee is a political deployee, sent by the ANC to do their bidding rather than fix the massive problems that exist.
It is also clear that there is no real leadership in uMngeni and that the ANC is using this municipality as a football, at the expense of the provision of services and the well-being of residents. As a result, millions of Rands have been lost to fruitless and wasteful projects and stolen by crooked politicians and officials.
It is time to clean up uMngeni by supporting those officials who are dedicated to doing their jobs – and getting rid of those who use the administration for party political gain.
The residents of uMngeni have had enough and on the 1st November they have the opportunity to vote for the DA in order to get things done.
