Errant ANC councillors to ‘ walk the carpet’

The ANC says it will have no option but to discipline all councillors who continue to defy orders in its caucuses across the province.

Under fire are defiant councillors in Buffalo City Metro who have walked out of a number of council meetings, resulting in the collapse of at least four of the meetings.

The five Great Kei ANC councillors, who resigned their posts, almost resulting in the collapse of a meeting called to elect a new mayor, is another unrelated case.

Drama also unfolded on Tuesday during an Ingquza Hill council meeting in Lusikisiki after the provincial executive committee resolved to recall chief whip Mpofana Tenyane. But Tenyane’s supporters allegedly disrupted the meeting, resulting in the assault of at least three ANC councillors.

ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi confirmed the Ingquza Hill incident, saying a report they received revealed that “some hooligans” had hijacked the meeting “just before the item of the chief whip recall was tabled, and a fight broke out resulting in the assault of the three councillors”.

The provincial executive council (PEC) had given orders that Mbongeni Nkungu be elected as the new chief whip, and that Ingquza Hill mayor Pat Mdingi take a leave of absence. Mdingi has been under fire following his arrest in April for contempt of court.

This after the municipality demolished 38 houses without a court order. The court then instructed the municipality to build temporary structures for people where their homes had been, within 10 days.

However, the municipality wanted to put them in Slovo instead, not in New Rest, where they initially were located.

This resulted in the arrest of Mdingi as well as municipal manager Mluleki Fihlani.

Another hot potato in the Ingquza council is its handling of local hawkers as well as small, micro and medium enterprises (SMMEs) who are accusing the municipality of appointing companies from outside the area to do basic construction jobs.

Ngcukayitobi said in an attempt to resolve the stand-off between the ANC-led council and disgruntled members of the community, the PEC decided to recall the chief whip and ask Mdingi to take a leave of absence for three months, so that the council can investigate the allegations and charge whoever was responsible for the demolishing of the 38 properties.

“We cannot allow an ANC-led council to treat our people like that. Whoever is responsible for all this mess has to be held accountable.

“Instead of doing what he was supposed to do, the mayor, along with the council speaker opted to be absent from at least two meetings where these decisions were supposed to be implemented. To make matters worse, a hired crowd decided to come to council chambers on Tuesday and beat up councillors. That is unacceptable,” said Ngcukayitobi.

In the Buffalo City Metro case, the Daily Dispatch reported on Thursday that only 48 of the required 51 councillors attended the Wednesday meeting resulting in its collapse.

“The ANC has no choice but to take appropriate action against all these councillors who choose to act against caucus decisions in all the affected municipalities,” Ngcukayitobi said.

“Appropriate action means, discipline them. That we will do but we have to follow all the necessary processes. We cannot allow people who are assigned to do ANC work, but choose to do as they please outside caucus decisions,” he added.

Mdingi and Fihlani could not be reached for comment by the time of writing.