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Madoda Papiyana, a former Chris Hani District Municipality Chief Whip who was twice arrested for alleged drunken driving, has been elected as the executive mayor of the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality.

His first arrest was during hard lockdown in April 2020, for allegedly being under the influence of alcohol, failing to stop at a police roadblock and failing to uphold lockdown regulations. He was again pulled over for alleged drunk driving in April 2021.

I will write to the EC MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), Zolile Williams, as well as the National Minister of COGTA, to express the utter disgust with which the DA views this appointment.

The ANC, despite condemning his behaviour in the strongest terms two years ago, has rewarded his actions with a mayoral position. While this is a disgrace, it is hardly surprising. This is the same organisation, after all, that employed Paul Mahlasela as the Chief Financial Officer of the same municipality.

Mahlasela is currently out on bail along with other accused officials for tender corruption in the Alfred Nzo District Municipality valued at R38 million. He was also suspended from the Nqgushwa Local Municipality for financial misconduct and left under a cloud from the former Lukhanji Municipality after the Supply Chain Department, which he headed up, was investigated for maladministration and corruption.

The ANC must understand one thing: people are tired of supporting a party that is hellbent on protecting and promoting unscrupulous and corrupt cadres at the expense of service delivery. eKomani, a once thriving and beautiful town, is now a cesspool of filth, sewage and collapsed infrastructure.

This is because people like Papiyana and Mahlasela could not care less about fulfilling their mandate to provide basic services. They are there for one thing and one thing only: to milk the municipality for their own self-enrichment. The ANC clearly condones their actions, otherwise they would have intervened and promoted capable people to these positions.

The DA will continue to fight for the right of all citizens in the Enoch Mgijima Local Municipality to access basic services, as enshrined in our constitution.

Issued by Jane Cowley, MPL - Enoch Mgijima Constituency Leader