The DA has called for Endumeni Municipality to be put under administration.
This comes after the acting Municipal Manager, Advocate Reshwant Brijraj, was assaulted by a group of municipal workers who apparently attacked his Council-appointed security guards.
Advocate Brijraj was attacked in the building after a previous Council decision had declared null and void a September meeting that had uplifted Municipal Manager Thabani Biyela’s suspension and brought back Advocate Brijraj.
However, Mayor Thulani Mahaye has insisted that only the mayor can give instructions to Advocate Brijraj to resume his post.
Mr Biyela was also at work when Advocate Brijraj was assaulted.
The Witness reported that ‘the gang set upon him with pangas and batons’, but this was disputed by independent witnesses who spoke to the Courier.
The security guards were overpowered and Advocate Brijraj fled the building, after which he was pushed to the ground and kicked.
His cellphone was stolen and his watch and glasses broken.
The attackers backed off when the police arrived. Lennox Mabaso, spokesperson for the Department of Co-Operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), confirmed that Advocate Brijraj was the legally-appointed acting Municipal Manager at Endumeni Municipality.
“We are not going to let this orchestrated chaos prevail,” he told the media.
Charges of assault have been laid at the Dundee police station.
Mr Biyela, however, insists that he is the town’s legitimate CEO.
There was no official comment from the municipality, but it is known that the Council is bitterly divided into two camps that blur political lines.

DA to urge MEC to intervene

Radley Keys, DA MPL, said, “The anarchy that prevails in the Council of Endumeni is a symptom of impotent and political bankrupt leadership, which encourages lawlessness and violence as tools to achieve personal agendas. The shenanigans that have resulted in the due process of law being undermined come at a very high cost to the stability and the economic viability of the municipality of Endumeni.
“The assault of the acting municipal manager, allegedly by employees of the Council, cannot and must not go unchallenged. This follows hot on the heels of senior provincial officials from the department having had their vehicles damaged when they were sent to assist this municipality to start functioning in an effective and efficient manner.
“Clearly, the leadership of this Council is compromised and the continued intimidation, corruption and violence threatens the very fabric of our community. So serious is the situation that I have approached the MEC of Local Government, Ms N Dube, to put the municipality under provincial administration.”
Several businessmen contacted the Courier during the holiday period to express their concerns, and said the Residents’ Association needs to be ‘re-vitalised’. Some who spoke to the Courier, but who preferred not to be named, hinted that, “A parallel structure may be set up where rates can be paid into a separate account, and not to the municipality, until Endumeni is ‘properly run’.”