DA stages walkout at first uMngeni council meeting
The inauguration of the uMngeni council has got off to a chaotic start.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) says its members walked out of proceedings on Friday morning apparently after suspended municipal manager Thembeka Cibane tried to preside over the meeting.
Mayor-elect Chris Pappas says Cibane's presence was illegal.
He says they're considering their legal options.
"The suspension clause number seven says she cannot be on the municipal premises. So that stands until a council resolution changes that and there is no council to change that, which means that her presence here makes this meeting illegal.
"So we could not as the Democratic Alliance agree to a meeting continuing that is illegal. The ANC was quite happy to do that. We know that they are used to doing things illegally and not by the book. But as the DA we could not agree to that.
"Besides that, the acting municipal manager had an obligation to implement the rules of suspension which he failed tp do so, which we believe then implicates him."
DA and EFF councillors have since been sworn-in at the Howick Magistrate's Court.
The Midlands municipality was previously run by the ANC.
The DA won it with an outright majority during last week's elections.
