WATCH: EFF condemns behaviour at Mtubatuba Municipality

THE ‘war mongering behaviour’ at Mtubatuba Municipality this past week has been condemned by the EFF in KZN.

The party issued a statement on Tuesday as armed guards have reportedly been manning the municipal offices since last Friday, allegedly to prevent the new administrator from entering the premises.

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KZN Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Sihle Zikalala is expected to update the council today (Thursday) regarding the Section 139 intervention at the municipality.

This after the council received a letter from Cogta on 5 January, which stated that the intervention – placing the municipality under administration – would be extended until April.

In 2019, Cogta announced its intervention in the local municipality as it was under ‘financial distress’ and facing ‘governance and organisational challenges’.

Mtubatuba councillors have been invited to Thursday’s council meeting where a new administrator may be introduced following the resignation of the current one.

Reports indicate that last Friday, the new administrator was prevented from entering the premises.

When questioned about the security guards, the municipality’s communications manager Khulekani Msweli said he was ‘unaware’, and that if there was an increased presence of guards, it could be because of an exchange of security companies.

The EFF statement reads: “We note with shock the contents of a video that has gone viral whereby gun-wielding men are seen preventing the new administrator from entering municipal premises. This is the highest form of barbarism, anarchy, entitlement and egotism displayed by municipal management with the aim of serving personal interests for certain individuals.”

The red berets called on Zikalala to ‘act decisively’ and advised aggrieved parties to seek a court interdict.
IFP KZN Chairperson Thami Ntuli also claimed to have no knowledge of the event, stating: “Unfortunately, I have not seen the video you are talking about.”

Ntuli further raised concerns about Cogta, accusing the department of not working to help municipalities, but rather displaying an ‘obsession’ to further certain political interests.

The IFP chair said the administrator, who is expected to take office at the municipality, is Dr Siya Ntuli who worked as municipal manager (MM) at the local municipality and ‘was failing when being helped by the then administrator’.

At the time, while the municipality was under administrator Bamba Ndwandwe, Ntuli was under investigation for numerous charges of corruption and fraud.

“So what new change is he going to bring?” queried the IFP provincial chair.

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