KZN premier slams Pappas’ ‘irresponsible games’
KZN Premier Nomusa Dube-Ncube has labelled Umngeni Mayor Chris Pappas’ attempt to a government event from going ahead as irresponsible.
The premier’s remarks come after attempts by the local municipality to put the breaks on a community engagement event at the Mpophomeni Stadium on Saturday.
"There was no need for him to try and stop a legitimate imbizo that was planned long in time, that has been on the planning with his municipal officials participating in the preparation for this imbizo. I can assure you that if even those municipal officials knew that there were going to be games, they would have told those meeting that they were preparing," said Dube-Ncube.
She described Pappas' attempts this week as abuse of power.
According to the municipality due process was not followed by the Premier's Office and the municipality was not notified timeously.
Instead, the premier was offered alternative venues as the Mpophomeni stadium was also scheduled to host a community sports day on Saturday.
On Friday night, the Umgeni Municipality announced the cancellation of the sports event after Pappas was chased out of the stadium by suspected ANC supporters.
It is further alleged that a man was rushed to the hospital after he was knocked down by a car allegedly driven by the mayor, but was released from hospital the same night.
Commenting on the sidelines of the Imbizo on Saturday Dube-Ncube said they have taken the legal route to prove that they had planned for the imbizo well in advance and ahead of the municipality's sports day.
"We did approach the court, with the view of asking the court to declare whether what we are saying was true or not. We wanted the court to authenticate the fact that we had legitimately, on time booked the hall, paid the deposit for the hall, but also that this activity was planned long before the mayor thought of his so-called games."
