Durban — Political party ActionSA is calling for the eThekwini Municipality to take decisive action against Councillor Muzimuni Ngiba who is in jail awaiting trial.
Ngiba is still receiving his remuneration from the municipality despite being behind bars for the past 12 months on a charge of murder.
ActionSA handed over a memorandum with its demands to eThekwini Municipality speaker Thabani Nyawose on Wednesday outside the Durban City Hall.
ActionSA KZN provincial chairperson Zwakele Mncwango said the party was outraged to learn that Ngiba an ANC Ward 101 councillor in the eThekwini Municipality was being paid and called for his immediate removal.
“It is puzzling how this has gone undetected for almost a year, while the councillor has missed more than three council meetings in the municipality, which is a violation of the Code of Conduct for Councillors,” Mncwango said.
“The speaker must publicly apologise for his failure to act timeously, which has resulted in the payment of R541 681 which is the total gazetted remuneration package of eThekwini Metro councillors, and as a result of this, this amount should be regarded and recorded as wasteful expenditure by his office,” Mncwango said.
He also demands that Nyawose gives an explanation about the status of an eThekwini ward 54 councillor, who was also arrested for murder in February 2022, and is out on bail.
“Although the ward 54 councillor has been on the ANC’s ‘Step Aside’ rule, but just like Ngiba, he too has been receiving his remuneration for over a year, despite not doing community work as expected from a councillor,” Mncwango said.
Mncwango called for Ngiba to be removed from the payroll by the end of May. Mncwango said ActionSA would monitor the issue and ensure that the speaker tables the item in the next council meeting.
“Further noting that the eThekwini ANC regional secretary was on national TV two days ago where he blamed Nyawose for not taking decisive action on this,” he said.
ActionSA demanded the following in their memorandum within the next 14 days:
1- Thabani Nyawose to exercise his power as the speaker of the eThekwini Municipality and immediately remove the councillor from the Metro, due to contravening multiple provisions of the Code of Conduct for Councillors under section 4(2).
2- Thabani Nyawose must apologise publicly that his failure to act has resulted in ratepayer funds being paid to the jailed councillor that amounts to R541 681 which is the gazetted total remuneration package of Metro councillor. This should be regarded and recorded as wasteful expenditure by his office.
3- Thabani Nyawose, as the speaker, owes the residents of eThekwini an explanation about the status of a Ward 54 councillor who was also arrested for murder. Although the councillor was granted bail, he has been on step-aside as per ANC decision. Councillor Mnguni continues to receive a salary for more than a year without doing community work as a councillor.
4- There be immediate discussions between the municipality, COGTA and IEC to begin the process of a by-election in Ward 101.
5- Thabani Nyawose must engage with the ANC about Ward 54 councillor who has been on step-aside for more than a year.
In his response to the memorandum, Nyawose said as council they took the matter as another form of conveying a message to the government.
He said political parties had their own ways of doing things and had their own style of conducting council matters. The speaker of council has a responsibility to follow the law and processes before taking any decisions. There are two pieces of legislation which guide us when dealing with any matters of council. The first one is the Public Office Bearers’ Act that regulates the payments of councillors, number two is the Structures’ Act, schedule seven that deals with the conduct of subsection 15 to 16. It explains the process that has to be followed by the speaker,“ Nyawose said.
If a councillor has missed three consecutive council meetings, that councillor must cease to be a councillor. But you don’t just terminate because he has not attended three meetings, it says the council must adopt the procedure. I therefore can confirm that last year the procedure was adopted by the council.
We have started the process as the speaker of council. We wrote a letter to Councillor Ngiba, using the physical address that was given to us, expecting him to respond. After not getting an explanation or report from Councillor Ngiba, we then approached the council for the adoption of the procedure.
“So that we use it to start the process. After that we are now in a process where we are preparing a report to the council, to be tabled at the end of May in a council meeting, where the speaker will explain what he has done in terms of the council procedures. Then we are going to recommend that Councillor Ngiba be terminated, or cease to be a councillor, because we have followed all the processes,” Nyawose said.
But it is not up to the council to take a decision, but will make a recommendation to Cogta, because it is them who must take the ultimate decision, said Nyawose.
“Currently we are at a stage where we are about to conclude this process. Therefore the speaker can not act on something that must be determined at that level. Councillors are not being paid as per the number of council meetings they attended, but are being paid by virtue of being councillors. Therefore you can only suspend the salary of a councillor when he ceases to be a councillor. Therefore Councillor Ngiba’s salary has not been suspended because he has not ceased to be a councillor,” Nyawose said.
WhatsApp your views on this story at 071 485 7995.
Daily News