Umkhanyakude municipal employees blockade workplaces in protest – SABC Information

Workers of the Umkhanyakude district municipality in Northern KwaZulu-Natal who are opposed to the appointment of an administrator are on strike and have blockaded the main gate to the municipal buildings with trucks.  

Cooperative Governance MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi appointed Bamba Ndwandwe as administrator earlier this month.  

Auditor-General (AG) Tsakani Maluleke has asked KwaZulu-Natal’s Cooperative Governance Department to intervene after the ANC-led Umkhanyakude District Municipality consistently failed to address material findings made by the AG.

— SABC News (@SABCNews) July 27, 2025

The district council is taking the MEC to court over the decision. 

The MEC says workers started the blockade to deny Ndwandwe access to the municipal offices. 

Workers say there is no need for an administrator because the local government is financially stable.  

Mlungisi Shabalala, who works for the district municipality at Hluhluwe, 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.” 

[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