Durban — Endumeni Local Municipality is expected to finally elect a new mayor on Tuesday after Thursday’s council meeting was disrupted by a bomb scare.
The staff at the municipal offices were quickly evacuated after an anonymous call warned that there was a bomb inside the municipal building. Councillors who were on their way to the council meeting were told to go back home since the meeting was cancelled so that police could search for a bomb, which turned out to be a hoax
IFP caucus leader Xolani Msezane told the Daily News on Monday that a new meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday to elect a mayor.
“We were on our way from our caucus meeting when we received a call from the municipality safety and security head who warned us not to come near the municipality building because a bomb was reported to be planted inside the offices. We have been invited to hold the meeting tomorrow,” said Msezane.
There has been a leadership vacuum for three weeks after the Mayor Siyabonga Ndlovu resigned. Ndlovu, an Inkatha Freedom Party councillor, allegedly resigned due to the Democratic Alliance mounting pressure. The DA filed for a motion of no confidence against Ndlovu.The Endumeni situation is compounded by the fact that it never had a deputy mayor since the establishment of the council after the 2021 local government elections. It was the DA that turned down the offer although it assisted IFP to govern the municipality.
Although the DA helped the IFP to govern the tiny municipality in the north-west of KwaZulu-Natal, it was no longer happy with Ndlovu and called for his removal.
The IFP has already replaced Ndlovu’s seat in the council with Mcebo Mkhize who is expected to be easily elected to the mayor’s position with the DA’s support. In the 13-seat council, IFP and ANC have five aside while the DA holds two and Philani Mavundla’s Abantu Batho Congress has 1.
WhatsApp your views on this story at 071 485 7995.
Daily News