Divisions in Buffalo City Metro’s mayoral council were on display at a poorly attended gathering in Mdantsane on Friday where mayor Xola Pakati publicly upbraided half his committee members for reneging on their promise of a show of unity at the event.
Pakati did not mince his words when he expressed disappointment that more than half his mayoral committee members had failed to join a service delivery assessment trip in Mdantsane’s ward 20.
On Thursday the mayoral committee had met and agreed to attend the event, he told a gathering of about 30 people.
Only three of Pakati’s mayoral committee members attended the brief event at the township’s Zone 7 hall, while four members snubbed it.
The mayor said that except for deputy mayor Helen Neale-May, who he said had attended another meeting, only public safety and health committee head Amanda Myute, infrastructure head Sindile Toni and development planning head Phumla Nazo had kept their promises to attend the Friday event.
Pakati called on those who did not attend to find it in their hearts to prioritise matters of service delivery.
The ward is set to host by-elections later this month after controversial councillor Ntombizodwa Gamnca was removed from her seat by Cogta MEC Xolile Nqatha early this year amid allegations of corruption and a court conviction for assaulting a fellow ANC councillor and proportional representative in her ward.
Gamnca has since interdicted the planned by-elections, while the court has ordered that she retains her council seat — a ruling now being appealed by Nqatha.
On Friday the ANC in the region said it had halted campaigning in the area until the matter of Gamnca’s removal had been finalised in court.
Pakati refused to answer questions about the ward’s politics, saying he was there only wearing his government cap.
He said: “We all agreed in the Thursday mayoral committee meeting to come here today. But our mayoral committee is not only three people.
“We are hoping that those who are not here, they will one day fix their hearts so that they could be ready for this.
“This thing we are involved in, no-one is employed to be here. You must be ready for this. There are some who look at other people’s views and thinking, and do not think what their hearts think of, but we hope they will one day find it in their hearts to prioritise these things.”
When Pakati was asked on the sidelines about Gamnca’s interdict, he refused to comment.
“We are here as the mayoral committee to assess service delivery in the ward as we normally do in other wards,” he said.
“Those matters of interdict are matters that can be better responded by the respondents in the interdict.
“We had agreed that today we will come here to assess progress on service delivery and the expectation was that every member of the mayoral committee would be here, but some are not here and there are no formal apologies submitted.”
He took a walk in the ward where violence erupted recently during an ANC meeting to vote on a candidate to replace Gamnca.
Pakati assessed road and cleaning projects before visiting local community builder and businessman Mthombo Nkula, of Mthombo’s Palace and Restro Lounge. Nkula is recovering from a recent stroke.
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