By Celani Sikhakhane
- Mayor Siphile Mdaka denies ANC involvement in provincial takeover calling MEC intervention just politics.
- ANC provincial leaders say MEC Buthelezi unfairly targets only their municipalities for government intervention.
uMkhanyakude District Municipality mayor Siphile Mdaka has hit back at MEC for Cooperative Government and Traditional Affairs Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi, calling his interventions “unconstitutional”.
The municipality has been under provincial control since February 2021 because of poor service delivery and money problems.
“I don’t believe that his intervention was planned by the ANC. He is just playing politics. Even the Minister for CoGTA has not approved the intervention,” said Mdaka.
But the mayor’s comments come as his own party, the ANC, has accused Buthelezi of unfairly targeting ANC-run municipalities.
ANC provincial coordinator Mike Mabuyakhulu told the News Avenue Podcast that Buthelezi only steps in at ANC-led municipalities.
“We are very worried about Buthelezi’s administration to municipalities. His intervention as an MEC is very selective because he only intervenes in ANC-led municipalities,” said Mabuyakhulu.
The fight has caused major problems in KwaZulu-Natal’s Government of Provincial Unity.
The ANC almost pulled out of the coalition government because of complaints about Buthelezi’s behaviour, describing him as an outcast.
Sources say the ANC had planned to form a new government with the uMkhonto weSizwe Party instead.
Those plans were stopped by IFP deputy president iNkosi Mzamo Buthelezi and ANC secretary-general Fikile Mbalula.
A new administrator was appointed to run uMkhanyakude in July 2025 after the municipality continued to struggle with service delivery and debt collection.
Pictured above: Siphile Mdaka.
Image source: UMkhanyakude District Municipality
