From midnight, Endumeni may be the only municipality in the country not to have a municipal manager.
The tenure of Acting Municipal Manager, Boxer Mpontshane, comes to end at midnight. However, he indicated this morning that he has, in any case, relinquished the position.
Only Councillor Anthon Raubenheimer showed up for this morning’s Council meeting which was again called off.
Speaker Bongiwe Mbatha was away following the death of her brother while Dr Sandy Bedassi’s wife has taken ill in Pietermaritzburg. There were apologies from three other Councillors.
It is not clear who will fill the vacuum in the municipal manager’s office.
The ANC’s Councillor Lucky Khumalo told the Courier earlier that his party was ‘angered by a memorandum sent out by the acting municipal manager yesterday, instructing officials not to carry out any electrical disconnections in Ward 3, Sithembile, during the duration of the run-up to the by-election there on September 27’.
The memorandum, which the Courier has a copy of, also instructs that those offenders whose pre-paid electricity meters have been blocked be unblocked.

Speaker Mbatha has been asked to comment and her response will be published once this is received.

The reason for this was because of ‘political unrest in the ward’.
However, Councillor Khumalo said this ‘was not only unfair but against Council’s credit control policies and only a Council resolution can rescind a policy’.
“If this is the case, all wards should be granted amnesty when it comes to disconnections of electrical meters,” he said.
Asked to comment acting municipal manager, Boxer Mpontshane, said it was an operational issue and he had met with the ANC caucus to explain the reasons behind the decision.
He hoped that the Councillors would meet to discuss the issue further.
FC Bester of the Endumeni Residents Association described the decision as ‘rubbish’.
“I have contacted the MEC of Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs in KZN and asked them to please put this Municipality under administration. There has been one crisis after another since August and we don’t get answers. All we have had are unreal rates increases of up to 300%, wasteful expenditure, and sewage flowing down our streets – although the latter is the competency of Umzinyathi, it goes to show the complete lack of any leadership in our area.”
Speaker Mbatha has been asked to comment and her response will be published once this is received.