Durban — The EFF in KwaZulu-Natal said it would ensure that by the end of the year, all close to 20 hung municipalities under the IFP would have fallen under ANC/EFF/NFP coalitions.
On Thursday Co-operative Governance and Traditional Affairs officials went to Nongoma to implement the Pietermaritzburg High Court’s ruling that said the council meeting in February that was convened through MEC Bongi Sithole-Moloi’s intervention was legal, therefore its results were valid.
This effectively meant that the NFP’s Mshangane Ndabandaba, EFF’s Sabelo Nkosi and ANC’s Babongile Sithole were duly elected as mayor, deputy mayor and speaker respectively, but the IFP will remain in control since it has appealed against the ruling.
IFP mayor Mangaqa Mncwango said those who had started celebrating the fall of Nongoma to the opposition should pause because the IFP was still firmly in control of the municipality.
“Yes, Cogta officials came here today (on Thursday) to inform us of the ruling, but for us it meant nothing since we had already petitioned the judge to appeal the ruling. We are still in office so nothing has changed,” said Mncwango.
Speaking to the Daily News following the fall of Nongoma Local Municipality to the NFP-led coalition, EFF provincial secretary Nkululeko Ngubane said the writing was now on the wall for everyone to see.
He said when the EFF pronounced the removal of the IFP from all the hung municipalities in the province, it was not a promise, but a commitment.
“Aphi amanga e-EFF (did the EFF lie) when it announced that the IFP would be removed from power in the province? Well everyone now sees that we were not lying,” said Ngubane.
He said his party and its partners would ensure that the mission to dislodge the IFP from all hung municipalities was accomplished by the end of the year.
The IFP had challenged the meeting, arguing that it was not legally constituted as the MEC had illegally intervened, thereby usurping the speaker’s powers to convene the meeting.
Nongoma was the third municipality to fall to the hands of the ANC/EFF/ NFP coalition through the EFF. First, it was KwaMaphumulo which is now led by an ANC mayor.
On Wednesday the IFP lost Umvoti to the ANC-ABC coalition which resulted in former eThekwini deputy mayor Philani Mavundla taking the mayoral chains on his party (ABC) ticket. The ANC got the deputy mayor’s position in the arrangement, while the speaker’s position went to ABC councillor Mfundo Masondo.
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