The IFP Umzumbe Constituency and Ugu IFP is concerned about the disruptions that have been taking place at Umzumbe Municipality. These disruptions are caused by the angry Umzumbe Business Chamber which alleges that the Municipal Manager, Miss Mgijima is corrupt and she uses her husband’s companies to steal municipal funds. Members of the Chamber insists that the Municipal Manager has been using the Construction of the new Municipal Offices, Inkanini Indoor Sports Complex, Ntelezi Msani and Ncazolo Access Road. They are alleging that the Municipal Manager inflated prices for these projects since it’s her husband’s companies that were awarded these tenders. They further made accusations that more than 12 million have been spent on the consultants for the Construction of Municipal Offices yet there is no structure or foundation on this site.
As the IFP we are concerned about these allegations and disruptions, this has been happening for than more than a week and there is no intervention from the relevant stakeholders. In all of this the community is left stranded with no services, roads are in a bad condition, people have no houses which were promised for more than 10 years ago, people do not have electricity, people do not have running water, the youth does not have sports centres and many other provisions.
As the IFP we are concerned about the mushrooming service delivery contests in the country caused by poor service delivery by government. We would like to encourage members of the public to follow regulatory processes to avoid conflict. We believe that Umzumbe Municipality’s Local Economic Development Strategy fails to empower local businesses to benefit from the Municipality’s economic activities.
One of the IFP’s greatest concern is that we have not heard the Honourable Mayor of uMzumbe Cllr. S. R. Ngcobo’s utterances to re-assure the community that he has the situation under control and on the way forward with regards to the issues raised by the local business chamber. The Mayor’s deafening silence is concerning.
We are calling for the MEC Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Nomusa Dube Ncube to intervene as a matter of urgency.
The IFP is also calling for the immediate suspension of the Municipal Manager pending investigation to ensure that the situation is contained and the community gets services.
We are recommending a forensic investigation on all the projects to dictate if there has been a misuse of municipal funds and corrupt activities.
As the IFP we would like to caution the MEC for KZNCOGTA against being, seen as being biased in the way she handles these type of incidents, we quote the intervention techniques used at Zululand District Municipality where the MEC saw fit to threaten to intervene with immediate effect after receiving anonymous letters alleging corruption within the Municipality, we quote incidents that are of more serious and of glaring nature that are currently happening in the ANC led Municipalities, uMdoni, uMzumbe and uMkhanyakude just to name a few, we have not seen the MEC acting as swiftly and decisively as she usually does with the IFP led Municipalities.
Our people deserve much better than this. We demand that our people’s dignity be restored with immediate effect. We demand clean governance.
For more information contact:
Mlungisi Ndlovu
073 684 0800
Simphiwe (Jika) Mthethwa
083 750 7220