DURBAN - Pressure is mounting on Alfred Duma Local Municipality mayor Zama Sibisi to explain the circumstances surrounding the accident involving the mayoral car in Nquthu.
Opposition parties alleged he was not doing official duties when it happened and was outside of municipality boundaries.
The municipality in Ladysmith is under the IFP. Opposition parties have called for a special council sitting to discuss the matter, saying they suspected a cover-up.
According to a statement released by the municipality last week, the accident happened on December 27 but the parties in the municipality said they heard about it recently and demanded answers from the mayor and the municipal manager, Sibusisiwe Ngiba, as the accounting officer.
The Daily News ran a story last week quoting opposition parties as saying they would raise the matter in the council meeting that was set to take place on Wednesday. National People's Assembly councillor Nkosinathi Mthethwa said he raised the matter at a council meeting last week but was shot down by the speaker, who said it was not on the agenda. Mthethwa said they were demanding a special council meeting because they were not prepared to wait for another ordinary meeting at the end of the month.
He said if he was given an opportunity to speak on the matter he would have asked for a police report and also asked the mayor to explain what he was doing in Babanango, which was out of municipality boundaries.
Last week, municipality spokesperson Siyabonga Maphalala said the mayor’s driver went to fetch him in Babanango and that it was the driver, not the mayor, who was driving when the accident occurred. On Wednesday he said: "Once the speaker's office received such a request it will be processed accordingly".
“We are calling for a special meeting to discuss the matter. We want to know what the mayor had gone to do in Nquthu. We want to know from the police who attended the scene, who was driving because the information we received was that the mayor was driving himself but the police report would clarify all this. It was also strange that councillors had not been given a report up until now,” said Mthethwa.
ANC local leader Bheki Khanyile said his party was also calling for a special council sitting on the matter. Khanyile said they were reliably informed that the mayor was driving himself and was with women friends when the accident happened. He said they had received information about the accident in December and it appeared it had been kept secret since no councillor was informed.
EFF provincial chairperson Vusi Khoza, whose party is in coalition with the IFP in many municipalities in the province, said his party supported the request for a special council meeting and that the truth must come out. He said he heard that the municipality said the car was driven by the mayor’s driver but his party wanted to know who the driver was and whether he was prepared to write an affidavit to confirm that he was driving.
“I will contact our councillors there to get more clarity but the municipality must produce a police report for this accident,” said Khoza.
DA MP Alf Lees, whose constituency is the uThukela district, said his party would also support a special council sitting so those responsible for the municipality vehicles could be held to account. Maphalala said once the speaker’s office received the request it would be processed accordingly.
Daily News