Jozini council fails to elect leadership third meeting in a row
26 August 2016
The Jozini municipality is at a standstill after the council has once again failed to elect a Speaker or any other executive position. As a result, the council is deadlocked and service delivery has halted making the people of Jozini the losers in this situation.
The Jozini municipality has been plagued with poor service delivery and corruption for years. The recent Local Government Elections had been used by the people of Jozini to finally show what they feel about the municipal leadership. It is very telling that the ANC was not returned to the leadership of the municipality with a majority and yet their behaviour indicates that they want to rule this municipality through back door nefarious means.
The Jozini council has now met three times to elect leadership. The first time resulted in a dead lock which led to the council having to adjourn. The second council meeting ended with the ANC requesting a ten minute caucus which they never returned from again causing the council meeting to be adjourned. Today, at the third meeting set to finally elect positions in council, the ANC just simply did not pitch up to the meeting.
If it were just the ANC not arriving or staying for these meeting the council could still continue but the fact that the Independent councillor seems to follow exactly the pattern as the ANC is an indication that these actions are deliberate and are done so to make the municipality ungovernable.
The ANC Provincial Chairperson, Sihle Zikalala, should be calling these councillors to order. How does he justify his party using tax payer’s money to meetings where the ANC simply does not arrive. It is this arrogance that lost the ANC the Jozini municipality in the first place not to mention elsewhere in the country.
COGTA MEC Nomusa Dube too must show leadership to ensure services continue in the Jozini municipality. It is baffling why the MEC has not resolved this matter the same way other deadlocked municipalities have with a simple coin toss if needs be for the position of Speaker. Why is the MEC allowing an already failing municipality to suffer at the hands of an irresponsible political party.
The Democratic Alliance will continue to fight for the rights of the people of Jozini. We take the election of our first councillor in this municipality seriously and want to immediately start to serve the people but must now question why the ANC is so adamant to stop any delivery from occurring.
Failure of the MEC and ANC to act against their errant councillors can only mean they are complicit in what seems to be a move to have the council put under administration under Section 139(1) and trigger a rerun of this municipality.
The DA awaits intervention from the ANC leadership but also ensures all Jozini voters that whatever happens, we remain committed now more than ever to uncovering the rot that the ANC so desperately wants to keep hidden in the municipality of Jozini.
Issued by Mbali Ntuli, MPL, Political Head of Jozini, 26 August 2016
