Greytown - The hurriedly convened special council sitting to oust Gabriel Malembe, the IFP mayor of Umvoti (Greytown) local municipality in the KwaZulu-Natal Midlands, collapsed without achieving its desired objectives.
Councillors of the ANC and the ABC (Abantu Batho Congress) have now petitioned the municipal manager to convene another sitting.
If she fails, they threatened to ask the KwaZulu-Natal department of cooperative governance and traditional affairs (Cogta) to convene it within the stipulated period.
NEWS: The special council sitting to oust the IFP mayor of Umvoti (Greytown) municipality, has collapsed without achieving its objectives. The ANC and the ABC have now petitioned the MM to convene another sitting, if she fails, they threatened to ask COGTA to convene it. @IOL
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) March 23, 2023
In a letter written on Thursday, seen by IOL and sent to the municipal manager, only identified as NP Ndaba, the collective 14 councillors of the two parties said Ndaba must heed their call because the speaker did not show up to chair the sitting as required by the law.
They said the meeting would have proceeded if the speaker or later, Ndaba availed herself since it met the quorum by having 16 councillors in attendance.
“Should you fail to call this meeting we will be left with no option but to call for the MEC (of KwaZulu-Natal Cogta, Bongi Sithole-Moloi) of local government in the province to call the meeting,” reads the letter directed at Ndaba.
The ANC and ABC councillors told Ndaba to call the meeting within two days (from Thursday) as stipulated by the law governing special council sittings in the local government sphere.
Furthermore, after calling it, they said she should make sure that the special sitting is not convened later than 29 March 2023 - that is next week Wednesday.
The municipality said the matter of the now failed motion and other issues like the notice calling the meeting which is now being disputed by the signatories, would be clarified during a press conference on Friday in Greytown.
Meanwhile, the IFP shocked the ANC on Wednesday when it won the heavily contested by-elections of the Dannhauser local municipality in the north of the province.
The IFP’s victory in a ward that was once a stronghold of the governing party, gave it space to breathe as it has now amassed the 13 (out of 25) seats needed to govern the municipality.
On the other side, the ANC overwhelmingly retained a ward at Ubuhlebezwe (Ixopo) local municipality, part of the Harry Gwala district municipality in the south of KwaZulu-Natal, tightening its grip on the local municipality.
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