The ANC’s failure to appoint a mayor in the Impendle Municipality has put it at risk of being dissolved.
Despite completing interviews a month ago, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal yet to announce a successful candidate. The small, 10-seat municipality outside Pietermaritzburg has been without a mayor since early July, after ANC councillors assisted the opposition in removing ANC mayor Buyisani Mlaba.
Of the 10 seats, the ANC has six while the EFF and IFP have two each. However, it was reported that five ANC councillors abstained during the motion of no confidence against Mlaba, and he was eventually ousted.
The delay in appointing a new mayor has apparently been caused by the ANC’s internal wrangles over who this person should be. While the ANC provincial leadership is said to have chosen a candidate from outside the municipality, the party’s councillors want a mayor to be elected from within their ranks.
Bamba Ndwandwe, a local government expert, said the municipality was already a candidate for dissolution as three months had passed without a council sitting. He said that in terms Section 139(1)(c) the provincial government requires exceptional circumstances to reach a resolution on dissolution and failing to elect a mayor is considered an exceptional circumstance.
“The Constitution dictates that if a municipality is failing to discharge its obligations, the provincial government must intervene and failing to elect a mayor is one of the conditions that warrant dissolution because the mayor is the political head of the municipality,” said Ndwandwe.
Hesaid that he believed that the provincial government should have intervened through Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) MEC Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi.
“I do not understand why the MEC has not acted up until now. Three months is long enough for an intervention,” said Ndwandwe.
Buthelezi said he is keeping an eye on Impendle and hinted that an intervention is on the cards.
“”CoGTA is monitoring the Impendle situation closely. The political instability is beginning to affect service delivery negatively,” said Buthelezi.
The ANC’s provincial spokesperson Fanle Sibisi said the party is still processing the appointment of the mayor.
In terms of the Constitution, once the municipality is dissolved, the Independent Electoral Commission must conduct fresh elections within 90 days and the CoGTA MEC must appoint an administrator to run the municipality until party that wins the election, elects its mayor.
