‘Empty promise’ leads to legal action
City mayoral reshuffling results in political mudslinging aftermath - ‘I was forced to resign by the ANC’ – says former city mayor Elphas Mbatha
FORMER uMhlathuze City Mayor Elphas Mbatha says it is not his intention to drag the ANC’s name down through the media.
His comments come after a Sunday newspaper claimed that he was recalled by the ruling party last year because of his vocal stance against corruption, tender manipulation and political interference from ANC heads.
Reported promises of his redeployment, however, have not materialised and Mbatha is pursuing the matter legally.
On Monday, the ANC fired back in a statement stating that the former mayor had an ‘obsession with himself being beyond and above what he really is’.
‘We would like to appeal to Mbatha to accept that he is not a special member of the ANC, and therefore like all other comrades, he has an obligation to do whatever his organisation assigns him to do,’ said ANC provincial spokesperson Mdumiseni Ntuli.
‘The ANC gave him only one option and that was to remain an ordinary councillor, which he declined to accept because of his own personal ranking above being an ordinary councillor – a view not shared by the ANC leadership then and now.’
The party, however, remained mum on Mbatha’s allegations that the municipality was awarding tenders to individuals aligned with ANC leaders. Ntuli described the claims as a ‘distortion of facts seeking to tarnish the ANC’s reputation and its leadership’.
Mbatha would not be drawn into commenting on the issue when the Zululand Observer contacted him on Tuesday, but he did confirm that the matter was being handled by his attorneys.
Injustice
In a letter to his attorneys on 17 April (in the ZO’s possession), Mbatha detailed how he was forced to resign by the ANC Provincial Working Committee with subsequent promises of redeployment.
‘I have been a member of the ANC for 25 years, but I have never experienced torture and injustice as I did in 2015. The provincial secretary failed, not only to advise the Provincial Executive Committee to follow ANC procedures, but also actively participated in a flawed process of removing me.
‘One is tempted to conclude that my removal had more to do with tender wars where public funds are used to fund lifestyles and factional battles of certain politicians. The only option left for me is to pursue the matter externally,’ Mbatha said.
The former city head said he incurred substantial financial losses owing to the ‘unlawful actions of regional and some provincial ANC leaders’.
