Philani Mavundla criticises MEC Buthelezi’s attempt to remove ABC councillors

ABC leader Philani Mavundla has won round one against KZN Cogta MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi. | Nqobile Mbonambi/ Independent Newspapers

ABC leader Philani Mavundla has won round one against KZN Cogta MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi. | Nqobile Mbonambi/ Independent Newspapers

Published Oct 28, 2024

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Durban — Abantu Batho Congress (ABC) leader Philani Mavundla has described the attempt by the Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (Cogta) MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi to remove him and other councillors of the ABC as a waste of time and resources.

Mavundla, a former eThekwini deputy mayor, was reacting to the Pietermaritzburg High Court ruling which temporarily barred the MEC and the affected municipalities from removing his party councillors.

On Monday, the court issued an order interdicting and restraining Buthelezi from interfering with ABC matters and preventing him and the affected municipalities from replacing the party councillors. The matter was adjourned to February next year where the respondents were MEC, Cogta, Umvoti and Msunduzi municipalities.

Cogta had written to Msunduzi and Umvoti local municipalities’ managers to declare the party's seats vacant on the basis of expulsion from the party. In Umvoti, seats belonging to Mavundla and Mfundo Masondo were to be declared vacant and one councillor from Msunduzi in Pietermaritzburg.

Cogta based its instructions on the dismissal from the party by a party faction led by Bhungu Gwala last year. Gwala and his faction had terminated Mavundla and the other two party members. They wrote to the municipalities to remove them but Mavundla challenged the decision in April last year, and the court set aside their dismissal. It is not clear whether the MEC, since he is new, was aware of the April ruling which favoured Mavundla and the other two leaders.

In response to Cogta’s instruction, Mavundla filed an urgent application on Friday to interdict the declaration of vacancy in their positions.

“I think the MEC since he is new, was misled by officials who were in the previous administration and we know those officials. This is a waste of time and resources because we have a court order that sets aside our expulsion from the party. Let the MEC and the department come to court next year. I want to know what their argument will be,” said Mavundla.

Mavundla and Masondo are former mayor and speaker of Umvoti respectively.

The department had not commented at the time of publishing. Its comments will be added once received.

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