Word out that City Mayor gets ‘no confidence’ vote

RUMOURS are rife that City of uMhlathuze Mayor, Cllr Elphas Mbatha is to be axed.

Sources close to the Zululand Observer said regional ANC delegates last week passed a motion of no confidence in Mbatha and ‘sent him home’.

However, the ANC said on Saturday that Mbatha is still the mayor and has not been removed from office.

Questioned about proceedings at the Regional Executive Committee (REC) meeting, ANC head of the Musa Dladla region, Thulani Mashaba said the mayor was still in office and that no such action had been taken.

But his response was a qualified one.

‘This is still an internal matter and we are engaging our structures on the issue,’ said Mashaba.

‘He is still the mayor of the municipality and still drives his car with all benefits.

‘If there is any process of removing any deployee, it must be accepted and adopted by the City Council.

‘Whatever happens in the structure is still an ANC matter. Nothing has been done so far,’ said Mashaba.

The ANC head did however confirm that the REC met at the Umfolozi Casino Resort for a two-day meeting to focus on service delivery and conduct an assessment on Councillors and management.

‘Before the people judge us, we have to do an evaluation of the past four years. This was done in a firm, honest and frank manner.

‘We are very serious about service delivery and if deployees have not done their work, they cannot carry on.

‘They have a conscience and should not come back,’ Mashaba said.

Step down

Mbatha, who has been conspicuously absent from a number of ANC events over the past few months, was not in attendance at the regional ANC meeting.

‘I heard the rumours of calls for me to be removed, but I cannot comment on that now because I was not part of the meeting.

‘When the ANC calls for my removal then I will step down. There will be no option for me then,’ Mbatha said on Saturday.

He said there had been calls for his removal from the Economic Freedom Fighters and the ANC Youth League since March last year when he publicly stated that ‘officials who were manipulating tenders should face the law’.

When asked about a replacement for the City mayor should he be removed in the future Mashaba said the ANC had ‘very good and capable leaders’ to be deployed locally and nationally and there was ‘no crisis in the leadership’.

‘People must not be worried about the leadership as we have never had a problem before.’

@RonelleRamsamy