About 50 Nkobongo residents protested outside the KwaDukuza Town Hall last week, demanding action be taken against their ward councillor.

The group arrived during the monthly council sitting on Thursday, but remained outside the hall until KwaDukuza mayor Lindile Nhaca came out to listen to their demands and receive their petition.

The protesters, led by the KwaDukuza Business Forum – an Nkobongo NPO – said they felt they were not being fairly represented by their Ward 8 councillor, Ali Ngidi.

“Ward committee members are the only ones getting opportunities in the ward with extended public work programmes and municipal projects,” said Ward 8 resident, Themba Ntuli.

“We are also denied access to use public facilities even when we paid for them in the municipality.”

The group said they were also frustrated by the lack of investigation into the issues from the council speaker’s office despite multiple requests for help.

“We demand answers for all the concerns raised to your office through correspondences since 2023,” said Ntuli.

“Therefore, we urge the municipality to give us a report on why we are being ignored.”

The group demanded a public meeting in Ward 8 within seven business days of the petition and for Ngidi and his ward committee to be removed in favour of a PR councillor.

Mayor Nhaca signed the petition, but it is unclear what steps have since been taken, if any. The municipality did not respond to a request for comment.

Councillor Ngidi was similarly unreachable, but previously rubbished the allegations when approached by the Courier earlier this year.

“This is politicking, cheap political lies. These people stood against me in the last election and now are a team, it’s not an NPO,” he said in March.

“I can’t deny access to any public space, the booking is done through the municipality. It doesn’t come through me at all.”

Ngidi said the group had approached him to use some space at the Nkobongo Hall but that there was already another NPO operating a soup kitchen in the room.

He denied giving preferential treatment to his ward committee members.

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