Celani Sikhakhane
ANC rebels have successfully ousted the party from power in the uMkhanyakude District in KwaZulu-Natal.
On Tuesday, the party lost the province’s most chaotic municipality, the uMkhanyakude District, to the IFP after the council voted in new mayor Tim Moodley.
Alongside Moodley, the council elected Speaker Pat Madlopha and Deputy Mayor Killer Mkhwanazi unopposed after ANC members did not show up to the vote.
Mxolisi Nkosi, the municipal manager who was suspended under ANC leadership last year, managed to hold onto his position.
An ANC leader, who did not want to be named, informed Scrolla.Africa that the IFP was voted in as part of a plan cooked up with rebel ANC members to get the party out of uMkhanyakude.
“ANC factions were turning the municipality into their milking cow. A lot of our party leaders were implicated in many tender awarding irregularities to fight other factions ahead of the Far North Regional elective conference,” the source said.
New mayor Tim Moodley told Scrolla.Africa that the ANC decided to snub the meeting but the quorum allowed the council to elect new leaders.
“As the IFP numbers were on our side. We managed to convene the council to elect the new leadership,” said Moodley.
UMkhanyakude has been among the most troubled districts in KZN, having in recent years failed to pay employee salaries, failed to pay service providers and failed to supply water to its communities.
This led to the intervention of the Minister of Water and Sanitation Senzo Mchunu last year.
Having lost yet another municipality in the province, the ANC now holds onto power in a few districts isolated to the south coast of the province. The party’s one remaining municipality in the north of the province is uMkhanyakude.
Attempts to get hold of the ANC Far North Region were unsuccessful.