uMkhanyakude speaker denies locking out Cogta MEC
Tensions are mounting at the uMkhanyakude District Municipality as council leaders push back against the latest intervention by the KZN Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs.
MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi says he was forced to break through locked gates at the municipality's offices in northern KZN on Monday, after he was blocked from addressing councillors.
Buthelezi ended up holding the meeting outside, where he announced the municipality was once again being placed under administration, just months after a previous intervention ended in April.
However, council Speaker Solomon Mkhombo has slammed the move, calling it premature, unconstitutional, and damaging to public trust.
"The council had a view that it would've been better for the KwaZulu-Natal cabinet to have considered the closeout report, which could determine whether the municipality has rectified or corrected all the identified focal areas so that that can be the baseline for them to say [that] we still need another intervention."
Mkhombo says the council has made strides in improving revenue collection and working towards a clean audit.
He has denied claims that he was involved in locking the MEC out of the building.
"This is laughable because I was just a stone's throw [from] where the MEC was. I was shocked to arrive at the gate and see what I saw. There is no way that I, as the speaker of the municipality, can block the MEC."
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