Nquthu Council continues to be in a state of flux with still no inaugurated Mayor. This has had a knock-on effect with the Umzinyathi District Council whose Mayor has not been elected.
In terms of the law, District Municipalities can only be inaugurated when all local municipalities within the district have concluded their process to elect local representatives to the District Council.
Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs MEC, Nomusa Dube-Ncube, is pondering options to prevent a collapse of governance and service delivery in the Nquthu Municipality, following the decision of the Pietermaritzburg High Court decision earlier today to adjourn the matter involving a dispute within the Economic Freedom Fighters over a legitimate councillor to represent the party in council until October 12.

The court decision would have paved way for the Nquthu Municipality to proceed with the election of office-bearers including the Speaker, the Executive Committee, the Mayor and Deputy Mayor.

Previous attempts to elect office-bearers in the Nquthu Municipality collapsed due to internal squabbles involving the Economic Freedom Fighters, over who is the eligible councillor to represent the party in council. The last attempt to constitute the Nquthu Municipal Council was interdicted by a group linked to the EFF, which obtained a court order ex parte (in the interests of one side only), and the elections were suspended pending the finalisation of the matter in court today.

“We have noted the decision of the court and we respect it. We will study the reasons that led to the court opting for this route, “ said MEC Dube-Ncube
“The latest move by the court means that there are no office-bearers to perform oversight on the day-to-day affairs of the municipality and this is very concerning to us, especially since more than two months have passed since the August 3 election. We have taken legal advice on how to deal with the vacuum in the two municipalities until the internal EFF matter is resolved by the courts We are currently studying the legal opinion and exploring various possible permutations within the law.

“We are mindful of the fact that our legal regime as a country does not allow a vacuum in public office. We are also extremely concerned about the impact of these delays on the delivery of services to the community of Nquthu.

“We would like to give assurance to the community of the Nquthu municipality that as the provincial government we will do everything possible to ensure that the current delays do not impact negatively on them receiving municipal services. Everything we will do going forward will be in the best interest of the community”.