The Pietermaritzburg High Court has postponed the Umkhanyakude District Municipality’s application to interdict the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance from placing it under administration.
Judge Mawande Mazibuko-Musa has requested legal teams involved in four related applications to arrange for a consolidated court hearing. These include cases brought by the South African Municipal Workers’ Union and the municipal manager.
The district municipality argues in court documents that the intervention by the MEC for Cooperative Governance, Thulasizwe Buthelezi, is unconstitutional.
The department is opposing the legal challenges.
Umkhanyakude District Municipality | Thulasizwe Buthelezi on legal & procedural matters
Earlier this month, Buthelezi appointed Bamba Ndwandwe as the administrator. Workers opposed to this decision are on strike and have blockaded the main gate to the municipal buildings with trucks to prevent Ndwandwe from entering the premises.
The striking workers maintain there is no need for an administrator, claiming the municipality is financially stable.
Mlungisi Shabalala, an employee at the Hluhluwe office, says, “We have lot of problems. We don’t get our money on time and that affects us a lot, as we must pay school fees and buy groceries for our families. Our families are now starving and we don’t know what to do. Even the stress level is very high, and some of them have chronic diseases. If there is a situation like this, they are the ones who are most affected.”
The court is expected to determine a new date for the combined hearing.
[WATCH] KwaZulu-Natal Cooperative Governance MEC, Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi, has defended his department’s decision to place Umkhanyakude District Municipality under administration. He says the council has in its books a fruitless and wasteful expenditure amounting to R3.4… pic.twitter.com/2LIJ9OKi0s
— SABC News (@SABCNews) July 16, 2025
