The National Freedom Party (NFP) says it might consider withdrawing from the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) in KwaZulu-Natal should the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) fail to nullify a sitting in which Michael Khumalo was elected as the new Mayor of the Zululand District.
The NFP says it was not consulted.
The mayoral position became vacant after former Mayor, Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi, was appointed as the province’s new Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA) MEC under the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU), led by the IFP.
The NFP, which has one seat in the provincial legislature, are kingmakers and should they pull out, there is a possibility that the GPU in KwaZulu-Natal could collapse.
NFP leader Irvin Barnes says, “IFP members are constantly continuing and moaning unity that we are trying to forge. I am here as a leader, as a council declared by the IEC. Now that IFP is not playing ball, they need to fix their house. So, whatever happened yesterday needs to be nullified and be corrected by the IFP. Remember, GPU is not about us as political leaders, it’s about the people that we are leading. But if this GPU led by the IFP comes at the expense of the NFP, we will be left with no other option to withdraw from it but that is the last option.”
Meanwhile, IFP President Velenkosini Hlabisa says there was never an agreement between the IFP and the NFP on local government matters.
He says the agreement was to give the NFP a MEC position at provincial level.
NFP Chairperson Mbali Shinga is now the province’s new MEC for Social Development under the provincial unity government.
Hlabisa says, “There was never an argument that the NFP will work with the IFP in exchange for the Mayor position in Zululand to be given to the NFP; there was no such agreement. IFP went to the extent that even if the NFP did not qualify to get the MEC in KZN, we decided let us give one position to the NFP in the provincial legislature of KwaZulu-Natal. That is what was agreed and we honoured it.”
VIDEO | IFP NEC briefing on GNU matters:
