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Struggle for positions hampers appointment of Emalahleni mayor

Struggle for positions hampers appointment of Emalahleni mayor

It is still unclear who will become mayor of Emalahleni in Mpumalanga, as the municipality has been without a leader for almost a month, while other municipalities in the province had already filled their vacancies last week.

It is claimed that the ‘struggle for the mayoral post was one of the obstacles that stood in the way of the appointment process of the new mayor’.

After the formation of the Government of National Unity, several municipalities in Mpumalanga were left without leaders after former mayors were deployed to parliament. Others accepted positions in the provincial legislature.

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A source said The citizen The talks have been completed and a new mayor is expected to be announced today.

“He is a renowned leader who has the support of the business community and other relevant stakeholders in the province,” the source said.

The likely candidate

The citizen can reveal that Emalahleni MMC for Development and Spatial Planning, Vusi Nhlapho, is likely to become the new mayor.

He succeeds Leah Mabuza, who resigned on July 2 to join the provincial legislature.

Nhlapho has held various positions within the municipality in the past, including ANC councillor and PR councillor.

He is one of the leaders trained by the Congress of South African Students and the ANC Youth League. He is currently a member of the ANC provincial executive committee.

Another municipality that has not yet appointed a mayor is Dipaleseng. Recently, the completion of the recruitment process, which was supposed to take place last Tuesday, was postponed.

Be that as it may, it is not clear why the municipality decided to postpone the appointment of the mayor.

When asked why it took so long for the two municipalities to appoint the mayors, Nokwanda Ndashe, spokesperson for the SA Local Government Association Mpumalanga, admitted that the positions were still vacant, but did not give reasons for this.

“Emalahleni and Dipaleseng are in the process of appointing (the mayors), the municipalities can elaborate on this,” said Ndashe.

Sasekani Manzini, spokesperson for the ANC in Mpumalanga, did not respond to questions put to her via WhatsApp.

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The municipalities that have already filled the vacancies are:

• Bushbuckridge Municipality has appointed Lydia Moroane-Zitha as executive mayor to replace Sylvia Nxumalo, who now represents the ANC in the National Council of Provinces. Moroane-Zitha has been a member of the National Assembly since last year, while also serving as coordinator of the ANC Women’s League in the province for some time.

• Chief Albert Luthuli has appointed Mbuso Magubane as executive mayor to replace Daniel Nkosi, who is now chairman of the portfolio committee on human settlements: cooperative governance and traditional affairs in the provincial legislature.

• The new mayor of Ehlanzeni Municipality is Terrence Shabangu, who has been holding a similar position in an acting capacity for some time.