JUST less than a month in office, ANC-led KwaDukuza Municipality Mayor Muzi Ngidi and his deputy Njabulo Cele are already at the centre of a controversy involving the alleged splashing out ratepayers’ money on hiring classy vehicles for official duties.

The North Coast municipality had official vehicles which had been assigned to their predecessors and which now lay idle.

The DA raised the alarm about what it called unacceptable “wastage of public funds” and said the councillors were not informed about the decision to hire vehicles.

“The DA has recently written to municipal manager Nhlanhla Mdakane to establish how and why expensive hired vehicles are being allocated to the newly elected mayor and the deputy mayor instead of using available vehicles which were already purchased for the executive,” said DA caucus leader Councillor Privi Makhan.

Makhan said Ngidi should be using a BMW 3, which he inherited from his predecessor Lindile Nhaca, who was unceremoniously ousted after a vote of no-confidence linked to her fallout with the ANC, her party.

Municipality spokesperson Sifiso Zulu said vehicles were hired because those that belonged to the municipality were not in a safe conditions to be used.

A source within the municipality said another BMW X3 should be in a good state to be used by Cele since his late predecessor Thulani “Mbazo” Ntuli died soon after it was purchased.

Makhan said upon resuming power in the council, the two ANC members who were elected to their positions on November 5, insisted “on utilising hired BMW X5s”.

In a letter to Mdakane, Makhan said the municipality was in breach of the gazetted regulations for the procurement of fleets for political office bearers and said the gazette was strict about the requirement of hiring vehicles.

She said she was shocked to see the two executive councillors regularly being driven in BMW X5s with various number plates and not using council-owned KDM 1, KDM 2, and KDM 3 vehicles.

It remained unclear how much money the municipality had spent on the hired vehicles.

“In KwaDukuza we have quite a fleet for political office bearers which we own and we don’t hire vehicles.

“The council-owned vehicles are new as they were procured in this term of office (which started after the 2021 local government elections),” she said.

She said the council breached the law, which stated that “if the municipality wants to hire a vehicle for political principals, they should do it through one of two reasons.

“The vehicle should have a serious mechanical failure or it should have reached a 125 000km threshold, which is not the case with vehicles that are on offer by the municipality,” she said.

Sources within the municipality said upon taking over the positions, Ngidi and Cele insisted on using hired cars although BMW X3s were only purchased late 2022 or early 2023.

Zulu said since the KDM-3, which had been assigned to Ntuli, had been non-operational for the past 20 months after his death, it was assessed and the report was being analysed.

“Based on the availability of BMW, KDM-1 was booked for a health assessment on week of the November 18.

“KDM has received the report on the health of this vehicle and relevant officials are busy with the analysis of the report,” said Zulu.

She said the assessment reports revealed that both vehicles had mechanical faults “which make them unfit for use”.

“As the reports are receiving attention, a decision regarding their future use will be taken once all factors have been considered.

“The decision to hire vehicles for the mayor and deputy mayor was taken purely on these grounds,” she said.

However, Action SA councillor Halalisani Ndlovu vehemently opposed the hiring of luxury vehicles, which he described as a “blatant disregard for the financial constraints faced by the municipality and the pressing needs of its residents”.

“The Municipality claims that mechanical issues have rendered the current fleet unfit for use. ActionSA questions whether due diligence was applied in exploring cost-effective alternatives, such as temporary use of more modest and budget-friendly vehicles.

“We call on the KwaDukuza Municipality to immediately review this decision, provide transparency on the procurement processes followed and ensure that future actions reflect a commitment to prudent financial management and the well-being of residents,” Ndlovu.