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Political intervention looms as ANC-led Msunduzi and Mpendle municipalities face mayoral shake-up

Msunduzi Municipality Mayor Mzimkhulu Thebolla's future hangs in the balance. Image: Supplied The two embattled ANC-led Msunduzi and Mpendle local municipalities in the Moses Mabhida region (Pietermaritzburg) in KwaZulu-Natal could have new mayors by the end of next week following their performance assessment by the newly elected regional task team. The team, led by Nathi Mdlala as convener and former Cosatu provincial secretary Zet Luzipo as coordinator, is expected to present its assessment report and recommendations to the provincial leadership this weekend. Sources that have seen the report said it has recommended a strong political intervention to the two municipalities, which many viewed as a recommendation for the removal of the political heads of these struggling municipalities. 'Everyone is seeing that Mzimkhulu Thebolla has struggled to run Msunduzi since taking over from Themba Njilo in 2019. With all interventions that have been tried not yielding positive results, the ANC has run out of options but to remove him; otherwise, the opposition will eat for lunch in the next year's elections,' said the source. Video Player is loading. Play Video Play Unmute Current Time 0:00 / Duration -:- Loaded : 0% Stream Type LIVE Seek to live, currently behind live LIVE Remaining Time - 0:00 This is a modal window. Beginning of dialog window. Escape will cancel and close the window. 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Text Color White Black Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Background Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Opaque Semi-Transparent Transparent Window Color Black White Red Green Blue Yellow Magenta Cyan Transparency Transparent Semi-Transparent Opaque Font Size 50% 75% 100% 125% 150% 175% 200% 300% 400% Text Edge Style None Raised Depressed Uniform Dropshadow Font Family Proportional Sans-Serif Monospace Sans-Serif Proportional Serif Monospace Serif Casual Script Small Caps Reset restore all settings to the default values Done Close Modal Dialog End of dialog window. Next Stay Close ✕ Mdladla confirmed that his team will present its assessment report to the provincial structure in a meeting that will take place in Durban this weekend. He refused to be drawn on speculation that the report contains recommendations for sweeping changes in the two municipalities. 'We have met all the leadership of our municipalities, and we are finalising everything today with Umgungundlovu District Municipality. We are going to present our report to the provincial team at the weekend,' said Mdladla. Msunduzi, which is the second biggest municipality in the province, has been struggling financially and administratively for a long time without solutions. Many interventions have been tried, including placing it under administration, but none of them appeared to have been successful. Just a month before last year's general elections, the ANC-led Cabinet removed the municipality from under administration. However, a new assessment by the IFP-led Cabinet intervened again by sending another team led by former Public Works MEC Ravi Pillay, which resumed its work in March this year. This was followed by another intervention by the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs Department, which instituted a Section 106 investigation following the surfacing of fraud allegations in the municipality. Thebolla, who was ANC regional chairperson, has already lost political power after he was left out of the task team's top five. Attempts to get a comment from Thebolla were unsuccessful. Mpendle Municipality is currently in disarray, with a month gone by without a mayor. The ANC Mayor Buyisani Mlaba was ousted with the help of the party councillors who decided to abstain during a motion of no confidence, which took place early last month, which was filed by IFP and backed by the EFF. The tiny municipality on the south-west side of Pietermaritzburg has only 10 seats. ANC has six while the IFP and the EFF have two each. Attempts to get comment from Mlaba were also unsuccessful. A source in Mpendle said the ANC provincial team recently visited the branches in an attempt to get their buy-in to fire all the councillors for helping the opposition to remove the mayor. However, the leadership backed down after branches threatened to vote for the uMkhonto weSizwe Party (MKP) in the next year's local elections. The source said branches supported the councillors' decision to oust the mayor and want the party to appoint a new mayor, and threatened to vote for the MKP if they are removed. The ANC provincial spokesperson, Fanle Sibisi, had not yet responded to the questions about the party's intervention in Mpendle.