Chaos and jostling continue to rock the IFP-led Abaqulusi local municipality.
In the latest round of anarchy, the municipal’s special ethics committee has recommended that suspended mayor Mncedisi Maphisa should have his mayoral chain taken away for his rogue behaviour.
The structure, tasked with investigating officials who are alleged to have broken their oath of office, also came hard on deputy mayor Mandla Mazibuko for his conduct during its investigation.
“In light of the serious nature of the deliberate misconduct by councilor MC Maphisa and his complete disregard for two letters addressed to him from the speaker of council and to restore the severely damaged trust of the community members, the MEC for Cogta [cooperative governance and traditional affairs] in the province should immediately act,” the 83-page ethics committee report reads in part.
“The committee recommended that Maphisa should cease to become a mayor while Mazibuko, his co-councillor in the IFP, should be disciplined.”
Maphisa finds himself in hot water after he allegedly instructed municipal officials in February not to employ anyone without his consent.
He also apparently told senior managers not to give business to a certain service provider whom he had a quarrel with. However, what broke the camel’s back was what was interpreted as a bigotry statement which Maphisa made during a public meeting.
The controversial IFP member, who wields massive influence within the party structures, called himself Inkunzi ekhwela zonke izinkomazi (king of them all).
The IsiZulu phrase was widely viewed as a sexual slur portraying women as sexual objects. His party later announced that it had suspended him.
The shenanigans in the council also saw the DA, the IFP’s key coalition partner in the rural municipality, threatening to pull out from the co-governance arrangement and re-establish the new terms for the partnership.
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