Barely six months after being appointed as the mayor of KwaDukuza Local Municipality, on the north coast of KwaZulu-Natal, Ali Ngidi’s job appears to be on the line as the team appointed by his party, the ANC, to investigate allegations of abuse of power is wrapping up its work.
The team that is already on the ground gathering information on how the municipality secured a security contract to protect the mayor’s house without the council’s approval and police threat assessment is expected to wrap up its investigation by the end of the week.
The party’s investigation was prompted by the leaked March invoice, where the Durban-based security company was billing the municipality for monthly costs of eight guards who are protecting the mayor’s house 24 hours a day.
However, the opposition parties denied any knowledge of the security threats to the mayor, which could have led the council to approve his home protection at such a high cost.
The leaked invoice revealed that the municipality was parting with R173 000 a month for the mayor’s home protection.
Sources within the General Gizenga Mpanza region, which KwaDukuza falls under, said it will be a miracle if Ngidi remains in his position as the party desperately wants to redeem itself for next year’s local government elections.
A source who spoke on condition of anonymity said that since Ngidi’s appointment in November, the municipality has been in the headlines for the wrong reasons and is at the centre of almost every negative story.
“If you look at the provincial task team’s statement last week when it announced that it was launching an investigation, it said that this security contract matter and other allegations circulating on social and other media platforms are quite troubling for the ANC as they directly conflict with the party’s renewal and rebuilding programme.
“So if found that the procedure to procure the contract was not followed, the ANC will remove it immediately,” said the source.
The regional secretary, Siphesihle Zulu, appeared to be concurring with the source’s view on the future of the municipality leadership.
Zulu said the ANC will not hesitate to take corrective measures to the satisfaction of the people of KwaDukuza if the investigation reveals any wrongdoing on all these matters that have been in the public domain about the municipality leadership.
“We can confirm that the team that was appointed by the provincial leadership last week hit the ground running immediately. We are expecting its report soon, it’s just that there were many holidays in between the seven days it was allocated to finish its work. We want to assure the people of KwaDukuza that the ANC will take firm and corrective measures if the investigative team recommends them,” said Zulu.
The ANC confirmed that the scope of the investigation will cover all the negative reports about the municipality, including the car hire scandal where both the mayor and his deputy cost the municipality R million within four months in office.
The two had reportedly refused to use the fleet that was used by their predecessors.
