AbaQulusi keeps new MM out

POLITICAL interference has reached crazy proportions in AbaQulusi Municipality. No one will talk to the Vryheid Herald but the rumour is that the new Municipal Manager (MM), a Dr Vusumuzi Mthembu, who was appointed by Council nearly two years ago, has been refused access to the municipality’s head office on the corner of Mark and High streets, and to the MM’s office in that building.

Instead, he does, apparently, pass the day in his white Mercedes which is parked in the vehicle shelters, between the head office building and the municipal swimming pool.

This would appear to be a flagrant example of contempt of court and the country’s judicial system, which it would appear have come out on the side of Dr Mthembu, saying he should be allowed to take up the position. As a result of all the judicial backwarding and forwarding, it is rumoured too that the AbaQulusi Mayor and the Provincial MEC have been instructed to pay R1 million in court costs.

That will be a refreshing change for AbaQulusi residents. The ANC-run municipality is known to have spent millions of municipal rands in fighting its case against the previous MM, BE Ntansi, who was accused (and it was never proven) of corruption by the ANC-led council, but who was nevertheless appointed to the Nongoma municipality by the MEC.

In December 2012, the full council of AbaQulusi Municipality agreed to Dr Mthembu’s employment, a resolution that the MEC, Nomusa Dube, simply is required to “rubber stamp”. This she refused to do, the reason being that apparently Dr Mthembu had “misrepresented facts’ on his CV.

Subsequent court decisions seems to disagree, but it would appear that the powers that be within the municipality don’t care what the courts have said.

What this political saga has cost AbaQulusi residents in rands and cents is unknown.

What it has cost in terms of service delivery and efficiency is also not known either.

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