Endumeni Council may finally get a new Mayor on Friday.  Council will meet on Friday to re-constitute the three Councillor Executive Committee and elect a Speaker and Council.

That was promised last Thursday but that meeting descended into chaos after the DA and the EFF did not attend and the IFP did – only to pull out as instructed by their head office.
Sources said the confusion was caused by a ‘split in the IFP as to who should be Mayor’.
“It was a toss-up between Bhunu Buthelezi and Siyabonga Ndlovu. Apparently the IFP head office wanted Ndlovu but some local factions wanted Bhunu – hence the split and the DA and EFF were caught up in the mess,” said one source who preferred not to be named.
Ndlovu appears to have the upper hand now, according to insiders, and received a raucous reception outside the Municipality following last week’s abandoned meeting.

The Speaker position will also go to the IFP,it is thought, while the remaining position on the Exco will also be filled with former Councillor, Dudu Nkosi, the front runner.

Lucky Ndlovu, ANC spokesman, said: We have always maintained that, the corruption and maladministration crippling the Municipality is being enabled by both the DA and the EFF, and they are as much to blame for the current state of affairs as their partners in crime, the IFP.
“The Municipality has been without executive leadership for weeks since the party fired the Mbatha siblings of Mayor and Speaker,  and with this the IFP; DA and EFF couldn’t in the least be bothered.
“This instability; lack of leadership and accountability has negatively impacted on service delivery and staff morale, as we saw last Friday evidenced by the video which has gone viral, where the workers were raising their grievances with the Municipal Manager which almost degenerated into violence.
“We saw this coming a long way, and we alerted the powers that be which resulted in a forensic investigation, the outcomes of which is what eventually forced the IFP to act against the pair, and we hope the forensic report will not be left to gather dust without action being taken against those implicated.
“We wish to thank the Residents’ association for their sterling leadership, and for continuing to speak out against the rot that has set in. We also pledge our commitment to continue to expose corruption and maladministration in the Municipality, and to be the vanguard of the public purse.”

“We are doing everything we can to hold the IFP to account to ensure that a credible mayor is elected for the people of Endumeni”.

The DA’s Hlanganani Gumbi said The DA is on record calling for calling for the removal of a corrupt mayor and we had serious concerns with the new mayor set to be elected”.
“We therefore put it to the IFP that we will not assist elect a Mayor with scandals who was previously fired elsewhere. We are doing everything we can to hold the IFP to account to ensure that a credible mayor is elected for the people of Endumeni”.

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The IFP did not respond to messages to comment, saying their spokesman was out of the country.
FC Bester, of the Endumeni Resident’s Association, said ‘’the crisis, chaos and ill management of the municipality by councilors and senior management is the result of a hung¬-council.”
“The only way to address this poor state of affairs is that Section 139 of the Constitution be implemented, which provides that a council can be dissolved. The community of Dundee, Glencoe and Wasbank must call on the Minister of Cogta and the President to intervene urgently.

“The current situation cannot be tolerated anymore. The powers that be do not have the interest of the community at heart, they are just covering their own interest.
“Should a demonstration be forthcoming by members of the public and destruction of property be the order of the day, such actions will be attributed to the current hung-council.

“The political calls being made by political leaders to their council members to ensure the hung-council is to continue is wrong and not to the benefit of our communities in Dundee,Glencoe and Wasbank.

“Its time that we draw up a petition calling on the current council to resign enmasse.”