Durban - Any written correspondence from National Freedom Party leader Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi will be dismissed as unreliable by the party’s top brass, who say they will only believe she has recovered from her illness when they hear it directly from her.
The party’s national chairman, Maliyakhe Shelembe, said the national executive committee found it hard to believe statements attributed to their leader.
“It is disappointing when they say the president was left with only a 30% chance of survival. But in February, we were told that a speech read on her behalf in Vryheid was written by the president. How are we suppose to believe this?” said Shelembe.
He was referring to a letter the NFP’s National Student Movement president, Sboniso Majola, read on behalf of KaMagwaza-Msibi on the party’s fourth anniversary in Vryheid early this year. KaMagwaza-Msibi had a stroke in November last year and has remained out of the public eye.
Shelembe addressed the media on Thursday, soon after accepting “300” new members, who claimed to have defected from the EFF, IFP and ANC.
Early this month KaMagwaza-Msibi’s spokesman, Canaan Mdletshe, released “an open letter to South Africans” in which she revealed that a stroke had caused her long illness. In the letter, she said doctors had given her “only a 30% chance of survival”. The extent of her illness is the reason Shelembe questions the reliability of letters purported to have been written by her.
“With a 30% chance of survival, she wrote a letter to (NEC member) Mzonjani Zulu. That is why I say we find unreliable leadership,” he said.
The new NFP members promised to crisscross the province campaigning for the local government elections. With the party expected to hold its second elective conference early next month, it seems its leaders are positioning themselves.
At the party’s first conference in Pietermaritzburg in 2011, when KaMagwaza-Msibi was unanimously elected president, it was agreed that she would serve two terms to ensure the stability of the party.
However, a party member said some leaders were now questioning whether she could stay at the helm.
The party is facing infighting, with allegations that Shelembe is leading a faction that wants to unseat KaMagwaza-Msibi, while eThekwini councillor Wiseman Mcoyi is leading a group that claims to be protecting her. Mcoyi is among 30 councillors who were recalled from municipalities, but they successfully challenged the decision in court.
The Mercury
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