Durban — EThekwini ratepayers must brace themselves to continue paying the salary of an ANC councillor who has spent about a year in jail.
Ward 101, which includes Cato Manor, Mayville and part of Glenwood, has been without a councillor since Muzi Ngiba was arrested in May last year for allegedly killing ANC candidate Siyabonga Mkhize just before local government elections in 2021.
In a media briefing on Wednesday, both City speaker Thabani Nyawose and the ANC said it was a mountain to climb to remove an elected councillor. ActionSA members staged a protest outside the Durban City Hall on Wednesday demanding that the speaker immediately put a stop to paying the jailed councillor.
Nyawose said since Ngiba was arrested in May, he had been sending leave of absence notices until December, adding that regulations did not require the councillor to give the reasons for not attending council meetings. He said his office could not start the process of stopping his salary until Ngiba stopped sending leave of absence notices.
“After I was informed that he was no longer sending letters, as the law requires, I had to write him a letter to his home address to ask him to provide reasons why he had missed the three consecutive meetings. I did this knowing very well that he was in jail.”
Nyawose said the matter would finally reach the council at the end of May for approval. He said even if the council approved the process, the City would not automatically stop Ngiba’s salary as the matter would have to go to the co-operative governance and traditional affairs MEC who is empowered to remove Ngiba as a councillor.
ANC provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo said the party’s hands were also tied. He said in terms of the law, a councillor could only cease to be a councillor when he or she resigned, died or was fired by the party, which could lead to a protracted court battle.
Ngiba and his three co-accused were denied bail. Their trial is set to begin next week.
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