ANC called time on Mnquma’s ‘fugitive’ mayor

The hunt is on for Mnquma mayor Ndyebo Skelenge, whom the ANC has branded “a fugitive from deployment”.

Skelenge skipped yesterday’s extraordinary council meeting, which was expected to remove him as mayor of the embattled municipality.

He submitted an apology while Zibuthe Mnqwazi and Zakhele Mkiva were removed as speaker and chief whip. They were replaced by former mayor Thobeka Bhikitsha as speaker and Nomfusi Ntshona as whip.

Because there was no motion of no confidence against Skelenge, he survived the chop.

ANC provincial secretary Lulama Ngcukayitobi and ANC Amathole regional secretary Teris Ntuthu confirmed that Sithembele Ncetezo is to be the Butterworth-based municipality’s third mayor this year alone. Several attempts to contact Skelenge bore no fruit yesterday.

But Ngcukayitobi blasted him and said the recall was set in stone. “We will hunt him down. He is running amok all over the show. He is a fugitive from deployment processes. We have been in consultation with Amathole regional leadership, so this is a decision by the REC and the PEC,” Ngcukayitobi said.

Skelenge’s days of power are numbered a meeting on Thursday votes to remove him.

Ntuthu confirmed the developments, saying Mnqwazi would be redeployed to the ADM, Mkiva will be sworn in as a mayoral committee member in Mnquma, and Skelenge will be removed on Thursday.

Skelenge is among 25 councillors found guilty of bringing the party into disrepute by the ANC PEC. However, others have appealed the decision. The 25 were accused of voting for Skelenge to be the mayor in a council meeting on May 9, in defiance of a PEC instruction to vote for Thabo Matiwane.

They were also accused of “chasing away” PEC members tasked with overseeing Matiwane’s deployment.

“Some wrote letters of explanation and others appealed. We must respect those things because the provincial disciplinary committee is not the last platform,” Ngcukayitobi said.

Since the new council was elected in 2016, squabbles among politicians and officials has paralysed service delivery.

PEC and REC members – including Weziwe Tikana, Sindiswa Gomba, Ntuthu and regional treasurer Onke Mgunculu – oversaw yesterday’s ANC caucus before the leadership shakeup was made. – Additional reporting by Simthandile Ford