DURBAN - THE battle between the ANC and IFP for control of uMkhanyakude Municipality in northern KwaZulu-Natal is heating up less than two months before the local government elections.
The parties are expected to square up against each other in a special council meeting on Thursday where four motions have been presented.
The IFP had asked for the meeting to remove speaker Thokozani Ngema through a vote of no confidence, but the ANC responded by putting up a motion against mayor Tim Moodley.
Ngema is an ANC council member. Another motion on the table is for the removal of the administrator, Bamba Ndwandwe, whom the IFP accused of being biased.
The party also wants the council to reverse the decision to suspend municipal manager Mxolisi Nkosi.
IFP caucus leader Makhosini Sithole said the manager was illegally suspended by a council meeting which had no quorum. The councillor that helped to reach quorum had been dismissed more than a week before the meeting. He said his party also did not recognise the speaker because he was voted into the position by the ANC councillors.
The troubled municipality borders Eswatini and Mozambique as well as the Zululand and King Cetshwayo district municipalities.
The ANC won it in 2016 but internal divisions within the party since last year had forced the government to intervene and place it under administration after the council failed to meet since July last year.
The administrator, Bamba Ndwandwe, took over early this year but it looks like he has not been successful in bringing stability as the ANC and IFP are still in a bitter fight for control. The IFP had used the opportunity presented to it by ANC divisions and removed ANC mayor Solomon Mkhondo through a vote of no confidence in March and replaced him with Moodley, but the ANC retained the deputy mayor and speaker positions which created a dilemma for Moodley. It is not clear which is the governing and opposition party in uMkhanyakude but by later on Thursday the residents might have a different picture.
Daily News