"Luruli must step down" - ANC youth league.

The African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) in Vhembe is calling for the mayor of Makhado Municipality, Cllr Mavhungu Luruli, to step down voluntarily.

This call was made during a press conference held at a local hotel last Wednesday.

The chairperson, Mr Rolivhuwa Nelwamondo, said that the youth noted with disbelief the "blatant disregard of proper management of the municipality and complete lack of leadership by Luruli". He added that the members of the youth league had noted "the rampant corruption of the mayor in allocation of tenders, in that normal procument procedures are intercepted from time, where tenders are given to companies which are owned by those close to her family and friends, without being advertised,” said Nelwamondo.

Nelwamondo added that some tenders were awarded to companies which charged the highest prices, but scored the lowest tender points. This is contrary to what the evaluation committee had recommended, he said.

He gave the example of the recent diary tender which created the stalemate between management and SAMWU. He said the mayor used her office "to dispense patronage to comrades, promising them jobs and tenders, which are aimed at dividing our structures. Luruli does that in order to serve her own narrow personal interests," said Nelwamondo.

“Since the induction of the mayor the relationship between workers, management and the political management team has collapsed," said Nelwamondo. He further said that service delivery had been severely compromised due to the lack of leadership and that there were in-fighting and mismanagement of funds within the municipality.

In an interview with Limpopo Mirror, DA councillor Itani Sikhwari said that the mayor had been elected to serve the people and not to enrich herself. He said that if the ANC found any truth to the allegation, they must fire her. “We are elected by the community to serve the people with dignity," he said.

"A mayor is a political leader in the municipality; she must know that. Municipal officers are forced to do wrong things because they fear her as the political leader. As DA, we appeal to the ANC to deploy her somewhere else. We are tired of people who don't care about other people," he said.

Sikhwari says that he neither tolerated nor accepted any form of service delivery failure. The corrupt officials must be dealt with firmly, for any form of corruption and mismanagement is always to the detriment of the community.

The provincial spokesperson of the ANC, Mr Makonde Mathivha, said that as the movement they had not received any formal letter from the youth league. “We heard this news from the media”, said Mathivha. He said that the mayor was deployed by the ANC and the organisition was the one that had the power to employ and redeploy.

"After we received a formal complaint, we will investigate," he said.