The ongoing morass of controversy that the Endumeni Municipality finds itself in has sparked the Endumeni Residents Association to seek legal advice to declare a dispute with the troubled institution.

FC Bester, ERA chairman, said he and his organisation had had ‘enough of watching the circus stumble along with suspensions, a threat by municipal workers to go on strike and the burning up of the subsistence and travelling budget – thought to be around R900 000 – within six months’.

“We are paying our municipal manager, TP Biyela, around R80 000 a month but he has been suspended for almost three years.  No one call tell us when the case will be finalised. Acting municipal managers come and go like I change socks – almost daily!  Now, a senior manager is suspended but remains in the building.  Who is actually running the show?”

Mr Bester said the ERA wants to ‘test the thoughts of hard working ratepayers by asking them to consider with holding service charges and pay these into a separate account’.

“Once we are satisfied with the service we are getting we can consider handing over the money to the municipality.  We cannot allow wasteful expenditure as service delivery goes down the drain’.