The mayor of Jozini Local Municipality along the SA-Eswatini borderline has become the latest political figure to call for the return of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature to Ulundi.
Mfananaye Mathe, from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) , says should his party take over power during next year’s provincial and national elections, they would move it back to its original place.
The provincial legislature was there between 1994 and 2004. When the ANC ousted the IFP, it abandoned Ulundi, the original capital of the Zulu kingdom, and moved the legislature to Pietermaritzburg.
NEWS: The Jozini local municipality in northern KZN has opened its first every traffic centre in Mkuze for purposes like vehicle registration and others. The centre that was opened on Tuesday and it will easy the load on nearby municipalities like Mtubatuba and Pongola. @IOL pic.twitter.com/YiW8wtRHTr
— Sihle Mavuso (@ZANewsFlash) July 26, 2023
Recently, the chairperson of ActionSA in KwaZulu-Natal, Zwakele Mncwango, said they support the call to move it back to Ulundi since there is enough infrastructure in terms of the modern and spacious building that was abandoned in 2004.
Adding his voice, Mathe, who was speaking in Mkuze in northern KwaZulu-Natal on Tuesday while opening the first-ever traffic department in the Jozini municipal area, said the legislature should be within the people.
At first, Mathe claimed that the ANC was resisting democratic changes “by clinging to uMkhanyakude” District Municipality.
He said it was bizarre that the IFP is in charge of all four local municipalities that make up the district. However, the ANC refuses to surrender the district to it.
“The national government (of the ANC) introduced democracy, but of late, the democracy is working against those who introduced it. Since the majority of people say they want the IFP in Umkhanyakude, it is hard for them to accept that. They are now clinging to power even though the people have spoken,” Mathe said.
Mathe said the IFP is governing Jozini, Mhlabuyalingana, Big Five Hlabisa and Mtubatuba, yet the district is governed by the ANC and he found that to be bizarre.
“The question is who voted for them and when they go to the people, who do they say they are going to? You can now tell that they are already against democracy, it means there will be a fight as they will stay in power by force,” Mathe said.
He added that it has become clear that the IFP will win next year’s elections in the province and move the provincial legislature back to Ulundi.
“It has become clear that the legislature is now going back to Ulundi, just next to us,” he said.
However, the ANC Mayor of uMkhanyakude District Municipality, Siphile Mdaka, dismissed Mathe’s claims that they are undemocratically clinging to power.
He said they have the required majority to govern the district.
“The ANC has 16 seats in the district, NFP 2 and EFF 2, the IFP has 15,” Mdaka said in response to Mathe’s claims.
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