The KwaDukuza local municipality mayor, who the ANC has recommended that she be booted out of office, is launching a fierce fight against her removal.
Lindile Nhaca has been at the helm of the KwaZulu-Natal north-coast-based council for three years.
She now wants the party to furnish her with tangible reasons as to why she is being shown the door.
According to her, there were no grounds warranting her to relinquish the mayoral chain. Instead, she believes her removal was part of a smear campaign.
According to Nhaca, the ANC General Gizenga Mpanza regional leadership was responsible for orchestrating the plot.
She also fingered KwaZulu-Natal ANC secretary-general Bheki Mtolo as the mastermind.
Sunday World has seen a strongly worded letter that Nhaca wrote to party secretary-general Fikile Mbalula, pleading with him to step in.
In the letter, she bemoans the use of covert methods to unseat her.
Mayor accused of ill-discipline
“I was summoned by the provincial secretary of the ANC at Prince Ka Seme House [ANC KZN provincial headquarters],” said Nhaca in a four-page letter.
“I was verbally advised by comrade Mtolo that the ANC has taken a decision to recall me in my capacity as the mayor of KwaDukuza because of ill-discipline.”
She further alleged that Mtolo had a vendetta against her, accusing the controversial official of making wild corruption allegations against her in a leaked recording.
“I would like to place it on record that I was never subjected to any disciplinary inquiry of the ANC, which found me guilty of the said ill-discipline.
“Therefore, the decision to remove me from office is personal and subjective, and the rule of natural justice enshrined in the ANC constitution has not been applied,” she said.
She also explained that she wanted the ANC’s top brass to intervene because she believed Mtolo was on a witchhunt.
Mtolo announced on Friday during the ANC’s media briefing, the first since the May elections, where the party suffered its heaviest defeat since the dawn of democracy, that the party had resolved to reconfigure KwaDukuza council.
The reconfiguration includes changes in the troika and key municipal committees.
Troika is a term used to refer to elected municipal leadership such as mayors, deputy mayors, speakers and others.
Strengthening the troika
“We have agreed as the PEC [provincial executive committee] that we have to work hard to strengthen the ANC and restore its image and effectiveness as a vehicle for fundamental political, social, and economic transformation,” Mtolo said.
“In particular, we have taken a decision to strengthen the troika of KwaDukuza local municipality and caucus.”
He explained that the changes were to ensure that service delivery is accelerated.
At its heart, according to Mtolo, was to ensure that the ANC arrests its decline, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal.
This is where the party faces an immediate electoral support decline courtesy of its splinter grouping, the uMkhonto weSizwe Party.
He said: “The regional leadership of the General Gizenga Mpanza region is now seized with the matter of ensuring a smooth transition.
“We have further agreed on the importance of the reconfiguration of the municipal committees in order to sharpen and strengthen the service-delivery machinery.”
