ANC in KZN brings Jozini to a standstill as members call for mayor's head

Hundreds of ANC members marched to the Jozini local municipality offices in northern KwaZulu-Natal on Thursday calling for IFP mayor Naye Mathe step down.

The crowd brought traffic to a standstill as they marched through the small town three days after the ANC caucus in the municipality tabled a motion of no confidence against Mathe.

ANC caucus leader Sandile Sibiya said this was done because he was “collapsing” the municipality. “The mayor has failed to respect the council caucus on various issues,” said Sibiya.

He said Mathe drove the idea of getting a R7m loan to pay workers' salaries without council approval.

“This was done after the municipality exhausted its funds on programmes or festivals for which the mayor had not accounted. Further to that, the municipality demonstrated its inability to properly manage its finances by having an overdraft budget of R50m — this happened under the supervision of the mayor,” said Sibiya.

He claimed that, also under the leadership of Mathe, service delivery had deteriorated to a point of being almost non-existent.

“Refuse collection has grounded to a halt resulting in the town becoming filthy,” said Sibiya.

He alleged Mathe attended to complaints only if they were raised by IFP supporters, adding this was one of the reasons they no longer trusted his leadership.

ANC Nokuhamba Nyawo regional secretary Verus Ncamphalala, who was leading the march, said they could “fold their arms while the municipality was collapsing”.

“We have taken it upon ourselves to save our Jozini local municipality. We are exercising our democratic right to demand responses and actions from the mayor and the entire administrative leadership of the institution,” said Ncampalala.

He said they called for an investigation into the appointments of service providers to undertake maintenance and road construction. These included:

• a R6m allocation for a bypass road in town now being taken over by the provincial government;
• the R4.1 m Odakeni gravel road; and
• the poorly built Mkuze drainage system, which has milked millions from the municipality's coffers. 

Ncampalala alleges R50,000 was paid to IFP councillors as a December perk.

He said they gave the municipality seven days to respond to their grievances or they would face legal action.

Contacted for comment, Mathe said he was not in Jozini but heard there was a march against him.

“The municipal manager told me that there is a memorandum in his office so I will be able to comment properly only after I see it,” he said.

Jozini municipal manager Sipho Nkosi, who accepted the memorandum, promised protesters the municipality would look at their grievances and respond within the deadline.

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