Part II

A responsible mayor will not block properly moved motions for seven consecutive monthly council meetings, seeking a public inquiry into alleged maladministration and the misappropriation of public funds; nor will he issue show cause letters, without any notice against two very experienced appointed councillors, simply for carrying out their duties in a professional manner. It does nothing for council morale.

So serious had the situation become in Malkerns that in November 2025, MP Marwick Khumalo raised an oral question in Parliament, which is still to be debated in the House of Assembly. It is anticipated that the outcome of the debate will not make for pleasant reading for the ministry and may even result in the call for a commission of inquiry.

Section 8 of the Act makes reference to the election regulations, with which the outgoing mayor may again want to re-familiarise himself, before his lawyer again puts pen to paper. It confirms that the minister shall make regulations for ‘the regulation of elections to be held under the Act to include’-

1. The qualifications and disqualifications of voters.

2. The enrolment in any municipality.

3. The qualifications and disqualifications of candidates for election as councillors.

4.The ascertainment of the qualifications of voters and candidates for election.

Regulation 3(2) of the Urban Government (Elections) Regulations 1969 makes it clear that, to qualify to be included on the voters’ roll, an individual citizen must have on the date of his application for registration as a voter ‘legally resided or carried on business in the municipality for at least six months immediately preceding the date of his application for registration as a voter’. If so, should his name not be on the ratepayers’ roll?

All very valid eligibility criteria which, in the interests of transparency and accountability, the outgoing mayor has always declined to answer.

This obviously casts doubt on his eligibility even to be included on the voters’ roll, let alone to stand for election as a sitting councillor in a town where he does not permanently reside. Standing for election as a ward councillor at the 2023 local elections, before then putting his name forward to be an MP at Bhunya during the national elections, the outgoing mayor has always refused to confirm or deny whether or not he is a permanent resident of Ward 1. And whether or not he is a ratepayer, business owner, property owner or the owner or occupier of immovable property in Malkerns town.  By continually deflecting the question, the outgoing mayor has only succeeded in creating doubt and has alienated himself from the very people he was elected to serve.

It would, therefore, seem reasonable to conclude that, on the facts as stated, the outgoing mayor was ill-advised to go down the route he has chosen and has shot himself in the foot by deciding not to support the democratic election process. By choosing not to exercise his right to vote at the inaugural meeting for the new mayor, it is almost inevitable that the outgoing mayor will have caused an irreparable rift between himself, his fellow councillors, the ministry and the residents and ratepayers of Malkerns. This now makes it impossible for him to continue as an elected town councillor in a town in which he has no interest. His options would now seem to be limited.

Respectfully, the minister now needs to ask himself the question whether the outgoing mayor is still a fit and proper person to continue to hold office as an elected councillor or has he done the minister and the ministry too much reputational damage? It is difficult to see how he can continue as the elected town councillor for Ward 1 – a ward with which he has never meaningfully engaged since his election in 2023.

The minister must now decide whether there is now a laid down process which needs to be followed, to permanently remove the outgoing mayor as an elected councillor for Malkerns town and to elect or appoint a new town councillor for Ward 1, who has the interest of the residents at the centre of their decision-making; or the outgoing mayor could do the honourable thing and fall on his sword and do his mischief somewhere else.

So serious had the situation become in Malkerns that in November 2025, MP Marwick Khumalo raised an oral question in Parliament, which is still to be debated in the House of Assembly.