Impendle Municipality leaderless as ANC stalls on mayor appointment

THE leadership vacuum at Impendle Municipality continues to widen, more than a month after the ousting of former mayor Buyisani Mlaba through a successful vote of no confidence.

Insiders say deep divisions within the ANC, which holds six of the municipality’s ten council seats, have stalled the appointment of a successor.

Without agreement on who should step into the top seat, service delivery has ground to a halt, opposition parties warn.

The vote that removed Mlaba was pushed through by four opposition parties, aided by the abstention of all six ANC councillors. Since then, the mayor’s office has remained locked, with no deputy mayor to step in.

“The ANC doesn’t care for the people,” said IFP councillor Sadewu Ngubane.

“It’s not right for the mayoral office to be shut for almost two months. The community can’t access services, and the mayoral staff are sitting at home.”

Ngubane said key decision-making bodies, including the finance committee and the executive committee, have not convened since the mayor’s removal, crippling governance.

Council meetings, which rely on reports from these committees, have also been suspended.He called on the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) to intervene.

“By law, a mayor must be appointed within fourteen days,” Ngubane stressed.

EFF councillor Sifiso Zuma blamed the ANC’s internal factional battles for the paralysis.

“We don’t have the power, the ANC has the majority. They are preventing council from meeting because they can’t agree on a candidate. This is the ANC’s fault,” Zuma said.

Municipal manager Zakhele Tshabalala confirmed the administration was waiting for the ANC to conclude its internal process.

“The council itself is not heavily involved in the appointment. It’s a political matter that needs to be resolved by the relevant party,” Tshabalala said, adding that municipal operations were “functioning normally” despite the absence of a mayor.

Repeated attempts to reach ANC chief whip Thabani Makhaye for comment were unsuccessful even after he asked to be called at a later stage.