ANOTHER STAND-OFF AT MATSAPHA COUNCIL

MATSAPHA – Seemingly, the division within the Matsapha Town Council administration has found its way into some of the council’s sub-committees.

This is because the council’s finance ordinary committee meeting which was supposed to be held on Friday, was called off as members demanded that the Chairman, Musa Ndzimandze, should not be part of the discussions.
According to the minutes of the meeting, the committee members did not want the chairperson to be part of the gathering due to a pending court case on his suspension.

Suspended

Ndzimandze was suspended by Matsapha Mayor Sandlane Zwane pending investigation on three allegations levelled against him. However, the matter is part of the council issues which are pending before court.

In fact, insiders said the committee members felt that Ndzimandze’s presence could constitute contempt of court. The source said their view was that if they continued with the meeting with Ndzimandze present, they could land the committee in contempt of court as well.

The minutes reflect that after the committee members had raised their concern about the presence of the chairperson, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO), Lucky Sukati, tried to persuade them to continue with the meeting but in vain.

In his attempts to persuade the councillors, the CEO advised the meeting that the gathering was statutory and further requested them to continue with it. However, the members mentioned that they had not received any notice reversing or cancelling Ndzimandze’s suspension from council duties.
“It is on that note that we feel we cannot continue with the meeting without Ndzimandze excusing us,” the committee members said.

Again, the town clerk requested that the meeting should continue. On that regard, the Deputy Chairperson of the Finance Committee, Mavela Shongwe, asked to excuse himself from the meeting as he felt strong about Ndzimandze’s chairing the gathering.

appeal

Thereafter, the CEO advised the members that the issue was outside the agenda of the meeting. He further stated that there was no instrument to remove Ndzimandze from the meeting and continued to appeal to the committee members to carry on with the proceedings.

However, the members insisted that they wanted to continue with the meeting in the absence of the chairperson pending the finalisation of his court case.
In response, the CEO drew Section 56 (5) of Council Standing Orders on Finance Committee, which talks about the committee’s meeting.

He said if the committee failed to hold two ordinary meetings per month in an interval of not more than 21 days in any month in which an ordinary meeting of the council was held, he should report the circumstances to council at its next ordinary meeting.

Post your comment

Your name:

Your e-mail address:

Add your comments:

Please enter the code you see in the image:

Image:

Code: