An ANC ward councillor in Ekurhuleni has resigned from the council and from the party's regional executive committee — accusing mayor Mzwandile Masina and his comrades of failing to deliver on their election promises. 

Nkosinathi Shabalala resigned on Wednesday, saying he could "no longer serve in a party that specialises in lies”.

In response, Masina said Shabalala was dragging his name “unnecessarily” and referred further questions to the ANC chief whip in the city, Jongizizwe Dlabathi, who dismissed the disgruntled councillor as “a populist”. 

A fuming Shabalala vowed that his mission was to mobilise the community against the ANC when by-elections are held to fill his vacancy.

He would not stand himself, but threatened to “de-campaign” the “dishonest ANC” to ensure that anyone but an ANC candidate was the winner.

According to Shabalala, the Masina-led Ekurhuleni executive had failed to deliver as per ANC manifesto promises of 2016 and he says he is fed up with covering for the party when the community demands answers.

“The Masina administration is good at one thing and one thing only - lying,” Shabalala said. “Mzwandile Masina, going into the 2016 local government elections promised that the city will build 100 000 houses in this term, but we are now left with two [years] and not even 60 000 houses have been delivered.

“The mayor had also promised to give 54,000 serviced stands to those who can build for themselves. As we speak not even 20,000 have been provided with two years to go before the end of the term.”

Dlabathi fired back accusing Shabalala of being an ill-disciplined ANC councillor who bunked caucus and party meetings without an apology.

Dlabathi claimed Shabalala had “only resigned on social media” and was yet to submit a formal resignation.

“Shabalala suffers from anti-ANC conduct because our constitution directs all of us to raise concerns within internal structures. Unfortunately he chose the populist route, with intention to sow divisions,” said Dlabathi.

“I can tell you there has been significant progress made on service delivery compared with the previous term. We have allocated more than 17,000 serviced stands to date. We are mindful that we committed to allocate 69,000 but our term ends in 2021.

“We are also mindful that we committed to 100,000 houses. There are three mega-housing projects that will deliver 40,000 to 50,000 units, so Shabalala fails to comprehend that we will have delivered on our target by 2021.”

Shabalala accused the ANC top five in the region of using the city for self-enrichment and called for them, starting with the mayor, to undergo lifestyle audits.

“This administration has spent R100m building fun parks, most of which remain incomplete because service providers colluded with some leaders within the municipality to steal money,” he alleged.

“They said they are investigating but that investigation has not been completed more than a year later."

He accused senior officials in the municipality of extorting money from community members who applied for aid.

“Their salaries are not enough for the houses and luxuries they have, therefore a lifestyle audit would expose many of them.”