KZN COGTA MEC condemns Impendle Municipality for underutilising service delivery funds

Durban
Nhlanhla Mabaso

Nhlanhla Mabaso

29 January 2026 | 7:43

The municipality is currently under scrutiny due to non-payment of salaries.

KZN COGTA MEC condemns Impendle Municipality for underutilising service delivery funds

KZN COGTA MEC Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi (centre) during a media briefing on 6 June 2025. Picture: Nhlanhla Mabaso/EWN

The Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (GOGTA) said that despite the availability of funds at the Impendle Local Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal, it has failed to deliver services.

The municipality is currently under scrutiny due to non-payment of salaries.

It has been operating without a mayor or a chief financial officer since the middle of last year.

The provincial government has ordered that the issue be addressed in seven days and a new mayor be elected.

While the municipality faces a deepening financial crisis, it now risks losing over R40 million in grant allocations.

This is due to the municipality's failure to spend the money on electricity, disaster, and municipal infrastructure grants accordingly.

KZN COGTA MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi has critiqued the municipality's failure to deliver services.

“With all those funds and resources that have been made available, there are still people with no access to electricity; some are still suffering from the flood conditions, therefore it is concerning that the grants that have been made available have not served the particular purposesfor which they have been allocated.”

In his address on Wednesday, Buthelezi also demanded urgent interventions.

“We have made very firm resolutions which must be followed within seven days to bring stability to this municipality, as we know there has been no mayor here since July 2025, and that is one of the major reasons why there is instability.”

He said, come next week, the municipality must have elected a mayor.

“We do hope that within the next seven days the council will take remedial action to bring back stability into this municipality, to restore order and confidence within the community that this municipality is working for the community.”

Buthelezi said plans to get the small rural municipality up and running will be fast-tracked.

ALSO READ: KZN COGTA slams Impendle Municipality over non-payment of staff salaries

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