The eThekwini Municipality council has approved the removal of incarcerated ward 101 councillor Mzumuni Ngiba as a councillor and member of council.
Ngiba has been in jail for more than 11 months, accused of killing his predecessor, Siyabonga Mkhize. Mkhize had been on the ballot for the November 2021 election but was murdered at a rally just weeks before the polls opened. Ngiba then stood for the by-election and won.
In March, the DA in KZN called on the provincial Department of Cooperative Governance (Cogta), along with eThekwini City manager Musa Mbhele, to act in the best interests of Ward 101 residents and call a by-election.
During the ordinary council sitting on Wednesday, Speaker Thabani Nyawose said after the matter of Ngiba not attending council meetings was raised, he consulted the legal team to investigate his breach of the councillor’s code of conduct.
Ngiba had missed more than three consecutive meetings without submitting a leave of absence, which according to the code of conduct, meant he could be charged or dismissed.
Nyawose said all processes of the investigation had been followed and Ngiba had not provided a response.
“Ngiba was sent a letter from my office to give him an opportunity to respond to the allegations. He was unable to respond in the given time frame. The recommendation by the legal team was that Ngiba be removed as a councillor and as a council member in the eThekwini Municipality.”
Nyawose confirmed that Ngiba was still getting his allowance from council and his salary as a councillor.
Other political parties
After the speaker’s report on Ngiba, the DA and the ANC requested a caucus to go through the report. After the caucus discussions, the DA accused the speaker of deliberately delaying the process to remove Ngiba just for the sake of avoiding by-elections.
The report was welcomed by the EFF and IFP; however, the IFP said it was disappointed by the delays.
“It was wrong to waste ratepayers’ money in paying Ngiba all these months and we believe the speaker should be subjected to the ethics board as he failed to report Ngiba’s absence to Cogta,” said IFP eThekwini spokesperson Mdu Nkosi.
Councillors accepted the speaker’s recommendations to remove Ngiba.
This story first appeared in The Witness.
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