Durban – The speaker of the IFP-led eMadlangeni (Utretch) local municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, Mzonjani Johannes Mthethwa, has resigned from his position.
Mthethwa, who has been sick for almost a year, raised eyebrows when he attended a council meeting while he could not even speak.
Prior to that, Mthethwa was embroiled in controversy when a municipal vehicle allocated to him crashed and it was later written off.
NEWS: The Speaker of the IFP-led eMadlangeni (Utrecht), Mzonjani Johannes Mthethwa has resigned. However, the sickly former Speaker retained his position as a ward councillor, dashing the ANC's hopes of by-elections that could have been used to take over the municipality.@IOL
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) March 1, 2023
It was alleged that he was doing his party's work when it happened and action was taken against him.
In another accident involving a rented car allocated to Mthethwa, the driver died and it was alleged that it was carrying two unauthorised female passengers.
In his letter of resignation, which was served to the municipality on Tuesday and seen by IOL, Mthethwa said he discussed the issue with his family and, “seeing as I have been unwell,” decided to throw in the towel.
However, Mthethwa has not resigned as a ward councillor, preventing bruising by-elections between his party and the ANC which wants to win back the municipality.
The municipality confirmed to IOL that Mthethwa has resigned from his position and his letter is being considered.
“The municipality can confirm that we have received a letter of resignation from Cllr MJ Mthethwa as speaker.
“The matter is before council for consideration,” the municipality said on Wednesday, when asked about the matter.
Meanwhile, in an unrelated matter, the same municipality is fighting tooth and nail to save some of its crucial service delivery assets from being auctioned in order to compensate a senior manager who was unfairly fired in April last year.
The money to be raised from that auction would go to paying a sum of R679 000 to compensate Zamokuhle Johannes Mkhize, a former director of corporate services.
The struggling municipality is set to lose two NP200 Nissan bakkies, 1 Nissan NP300 bakkie, a Mercedes-Benz fire truck and a TLB when the auction finally gets under way on March 16.
It is feared that the auction would likely cripple service delivery in the rural municipality since it has only one fire truck and TLB which is used for services like digging graves for weekend burials.
After claiming that it was not aware of the pending auction, the municipality is now frantically trying to avert the auction which is going to take place across main their offices in the northern KwaZulu-Natal town of Utrecht.
The lawyers of the municipality have since written to the sheriff asking him to halt the auction or else they would go to court to interdict him.
However, Cebisa Attorneys wrote to the municipality, warning that their interference borders on contempt of court and warned them of the dire consequences that come with defying court orders.
The municipality says it has launched an application to set aside the award that gave Mkhize the compensation he got.
“It was for this reason that we instructed our attorneys to write to Mr Mkhize through the office of his attorneys as well as the Sheriff, so as to again remind them of the legislative position, before proceeding with further legal action, should they elect to proceed with the sale under the circumstances,” the municipality said.
sihle.mavuso@inl.co.za
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