An Emalahleni mayor who was last month stoned by community members, has been removed from her position.
Sello Matshonga, ANC secretary for the Nkangala region in Mpumalanga, confirmed that Conny Nkalitshana has been demoted and moved to Nkangala district municipality as a councillor.
She has been replaced by Nkangala district mayor Leah Mabuza.
“I can confirm that Leah Mabuza … was today elected as executive mayor of Emalahleni. We’ve swapped the positions of council. That means Connie [Nkalitshana] will be sworn in as a councillor of the Nkangala district,” said Matshonga.
Nkalitshana will, however, not be elected as mayor. Matshonga said Thomas Ngwenya has been nominated to be elected as a mayor of Nkangala and the election will be held on Wednesday. The ANC will give direction on [what position] Nkalitshana should hold.
“The reason for that is that both of them are women and capable but the problem is [Nkalitshana’s] interaction with the community. Leah, being a former regional secretary of the ANC, will be able to engage with the community as she has that contract with the community. Whereas on Nkalitshana that part was lacking. You’d remember that the community of Emalahleni was very angry against her. Hopefully, Leah would do much better on that part,” he said.
Last month Nkalitshana was stoned by the community of KwaGuqa during a protest over electricity.
Matshonga said Nkalitshana and Mabuza had different leadership styles.
He said Nkangala municipality was a stable municipality when opposed to Emalahleni.
“The systems in Emalahleni were in chaos whereas the systems of Nkangala are fine.”
However, the DA in Emalahleni was not happy with the changes, saying the party was taken aback by the appointment of Mabuza as the new mayor.
“Mabuza’s appointment proves that ANC factionalism has trumped the needs of residents. Truth to be told, the chopping and changing of mayors in this town has brought nothing but disability,” said DA councillor in eMalahleni , Lizelle Steyn.
“It is important to note that during Nkalitshana’s tenure she added little to no value to residents of this town.
“Families lost their loved ones as result of recurring service delivery protests. At her inauguration on February 7 2022 the former mayor vowed to “accelerate service delivery” but fifteen months later the municipality is in a worse condition than before.
“Infrastructure has been vandalised, little has been done to develop this town, maladministration continues to flourish in the municipality and the financial position of Emalahleni is forever deteriorating,” she said.
“The DA expects Mabuza to hit the ground running and address these challenges. The DA will continue to monitor the mayor’s performance and hold her to account. Our residents have been deprived of services for far too long.”
Matshonga denied that the decision to swop the mayors was driven by ANC factionalism.
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