Durban - The NFP leadership says its political rival, the IFP, will emerge as the biggest loser from the current developments taking place at local government level in KwaZulu-Natal.
This was in reference to the EFF decision to end its coalition governance arrangement with the IFP, which will affect a number of municipalities in the province.
At a media briefing in Durban yesterday, the NFP’s Canaan Mdletshe announced that the party was throwing its support behind the expected ANC/EFF coalition in KZN as it regarded the two organisations as being committed to serving people.
However, the ANC and EFF have remained mum about any coalition arrangements between the two.
According to the NFP, there was already evidence that when they worked with the ANC there was stability, citing eDumbe Municipality under Zululand District as an example of this.
“When you go to that municipality you can see stability and that is what people want, not this chaos experienced under IFP-controlled municipalities,” said Mdletshe.
The NFP also indicated that it would seek an audience with the police leadership, including Minister Bheki Cele, to discuss how their councillors, who are living in hiding over fears of getting killed, can be protected.
Mdletshe said while political tensions had been on the rise since the end of 2021, these had been heightened since the announcement of the EFF parting ways with the IFP.
According to the NFP, some of the municipalities that could be snatched away from the IFP include Nongoma, uMhlabuyalingana, Mthonjaneni, Alfred Duma and uThukela as it said it was already in discussions with other minority parties in those councils.
The NFP also dismissed suggestions that it was a junior partner that would merely take instructions from both the ANC and EFF.
“We are an independent party and have certain positions on some issues which we will not compromise on. Any suggestion that we are an ANC infant is nothing but propaganda meant to derail the process,” Mdletshe concluded.
Meanwhile, the party said it would deal with an NFP councillor who had voted with the IFP during a council meeting in KZN.
“We will not allow untoward behaviour from a councillor who was voted to carry an NFP mandate and have the councillor do otherwise, such behaviour will not be tolerated,” Mdletshe said.
He would not reveal the kind of action to be taken against the councillor.
Approached for comment yesterday, IFP KZN chairperson Thami Ntuli said they remained unfazed by talk of takeovers in municipalities which they had been co-governing with the EFF.
He said the party believed that they had demonstrated good governance and commitment to serve communities.
On Monday, the IFP said it believed that the collapse of the coalition with the EFF was likely to only affect governance in Maphumulo and uMhlabuyalingana municipalities in northern KZN.
Ntuli also expressed worry at comments made by other parties, especially the ANC and EFF saying these could trigger instability.
“Local government is a very important sphere when it comes to service delivery. Some of the comments that we have heard of late seem to be about show boating and a political muscle-flexing exercise as opposed to being about the people, and we want to caution against that,” said the IFP KZN chairperson.
He dismissed NFP suggestions that Zululand District Municipality would be wrestled away from the IFP, saying they had done sufficient groundwork to retain it.
ANC KZN spokesperson Mafika Mndebele expressed confidence at the prospect of taking some councils from the IFP, indicating that discussions were continuing with the EFF and NFP.
“Obviously negotiations do not have a set deadline because there are many dynamics to factor in. So we are giving the process sufficient time without exerting any pressure,” said the spokesperson.
Political analyst Thabani Khumalo said the latest developments served as a lesson on the difficulty of coalition arrangements, and expressed concern that they would not last long.
“These arrangements and coalition arrangements have exposed individual greed as the driving force and not the desire to help people that they are supposed to,” said Khumalo.
He noted that the government of national unity between the ANC, IFP and the National Party after the 1994 elections had worked because leaders were still driven by the desire to deliver freedom to the majority, and not individual ambitions.