Johannesburg – Community activists under uMkhanyakude district municipality in northern KZN said Friday’s decision by the Constitutional Court to dismiss the IEC’s bid to postpone the 2021 municipal elections was a victory for disgruntled residents.
For years, the predominantly rural council has been limping from one crisis to another, battling with governance issues and allegations of endemic corruption that brought service delivery to a complete halt.
“We are representing the views of the neglected communities who have suffered for years under this corrupt municipal administration. The municipality is failing in its civil duty to provide rural citizens with basic services. So, the postponement of the elections would have served politicians to continue stealing money desperately needed by poor citizens,” lamented Nhlanhla Shiba, an activist and resident of KwaMduku rural village.
He said residents competed for water with livestock because the municipality has failed to supply them with clean drinkable water.
“Water projects have not commenced because R300-million meant for water infrastructure disappeared and has not been accounted for.”
Another activist, Sduduzo Mlambo of eDubelenkuzi, said he lived like a nomad after being forced to flee his village out of fear of hitmen allegedly hired to silence him for exposing endemic corruption.
“My only sin was to ask questions about several forensic reports implicating councillors and senior officials in fraud and corruption,” he said.
UMkhanyakude district municipality is one of the biggest councils in the province with close to a million residents. At the heart of the matters are ANC and IFP factions jostling for control of the municipal procurement processes and financial resources, which have rendered the municipality ungovernable.
In March, ANC mayor Solomon Mkhombo was booted out on a vote of no confidence and replaced by IFP’s Tim Moodley.
A month before that, speaker Mzwakhe Msane was also shown the door by the ANC provincial executive committee.
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