DURBAN – The inaugural council meeting of KwaDukuza Municipality was called off at the 11th hour after many councillors indicated they would not attend.
The meeting had been scheduled for today but was called off late last night after many councillors allegedly put in leave forms.
KwaDukuza, which includes Ballito, Salt Rock, Stanger, Nkwazi/Zinkwazi Beach, is one of the hung municipalities, where the ANC has 29 seats, while the opposition parties collectively have 30 seats.
The postponement of the meeting follows on the collapse of the inaugural meeting of uMngeni Municipality last week, which triggered threats of legal action from the DA which won the municipality from the ANC in the recent local government elections.
A statement from KwaDukuza Municipality on the postponement said: “The KwaDukuza Municipality wishes to inform its residents and stakeholders that the first council meeting of the newly elected councillors of the KwaDukuza Municipality which was scheduled for Tuesday, November 16, 2021, has been postponed to a date yet to be communicated.”
KwaDukuza communications manager Sipho Mkhize told The Mercury that the municipal manager’s office received letters from parties saying they would not be able to attend as they were still busy with coalition talks.
DA councillor in the area Tammy Colley said: “We received a message from the municipal manager that the council meeting had been postponed because many councillors had put in leave forms, and therefore the council will not be able to form a quorum,” she said.
She said it seemed that the postponement was due to the fear that the ruling party might not be able to form a government.
“The ANC has a total of 29 councillors and the opposition parties have 30, they need to talk to smaller parties and get more seats for the outright majority.
“The opposition parties in the council have also been talking among themselves informally about forming a government, in the case of the DA we have said that there are some parties that we will not work with, and such negotiations are happening at national and provincial level,” she said.
THE MERCURY