The ANC has urged the IFP to provide proof that a probe exonerated Mayor Richard Mbatha after he was accused of making fraudulent subsistence and travel claims.
At an IFP rally in Glencoe recently, IFP leader, Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi, told supporters that an investigation had found Mayor Mbatha not culpable and said the ANC was still jealous after ‘suffering election defeats in Endumeni, Nquthu and at the Umzinyathi District Council’.
ANC spokesman, Lucky Khumalo, said in a statement that should they fail to ‘provide evidence that Mayor Mbatha had been exonerated the IFP would be forced to eat humble pie’. He also criticised the coalition Council of sanctioning ANC Councillors with two weeks salary following a series of Council meetings that were either disrupted or not quorated.
“We also warn those applying for employment at Endumeni to ensure that the posts advertised are on the official organagram.
“It can be that appointments made are illegal and those who have been hired will be forced to leave as happened in 2014 when the Council was dysfunctional.”
He added that the ANC will ‘continue to soldier on and never surrender the fight of voters by exposing corruption regardless of the sanctions placed on our Councillors’.
“Previously, the ANC made sure all the budgets were correctly done and that Council sat for meetings. Never was there so much chaos. We have reported the current situation to the MEC in a bid to ensure corrective action is taken.”
He warned that ‘staff and managers acting irregularly and illegally will be taken to task once sanity prevails.’
