IFP president, Velenkosini Hlabisa.
Twenty members of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) national executive committee have been summoned by the body over their attempt to force a vote of no confidence in the party’s president, Velenkosini Hlabisa, earlier this week.
On Monday, the IFP’s regular NEC meeting rejected a petition by the group to hold a meeting of its national council — a superior body — on the same day, effectively stifling the rebellion against Hlabisa’s leadership.
Instead, the 20 NEC members, who are mainly councillors in KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng municipalities, have been summoned to appear before the NEC next Monday over their actions.
The group had attempted to have the IFP convene an urgent sitting of its national council at which they intended to bring a no-confidence motion in Hlabisa over some of his supporters wearing party T-shirts bearing his image earlier this year.
The party had banned the wearing of T-shirts with Hlabisa’s image by IFP members as it had decided that only president emeritus Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s picture should be allowed.
It did this on the grounds that Buthelezi would remain the face of the 2024 election campaign, despite Hlabisa being president.
Last week, the group wrote to IFP secretary general Siphosethu Ngcobo asking that a national council meeting be convened urgently on Monday, in terms of clause 4.2 of the party constitution, to “deliberate on the current issues that impact public perception of the party”.
The NEC members asked that the request be considered “in the positive spirit that builds the party” and that it not be rejected, as had been the case when it was put to the NEC.
Ngcobo obliged, writing to Hlabisa and Buthelezi — who is in hospital — informing them that the national council meeting would be held on Monday in Richards Bay.
However, on Monday, it emerged that the IFP NEC had rejected the petition on the grounds that it was “vague”.
IFP national spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said in a statement that the secretary general had received a “vague” petition from 20 petitioners over the weekend requesting that a special, urgent sitting of the IFP national council be held.
Hlengwa said the NEC had met and had resolved to dismiss the petition as the national council was a “serious body and cannot be convened willy-nilly”.
The council would meet as usual when convened by the party president at a date to be determined, he said.
Hlengwa said the group of petitiones had been summoned to appear before the party NEC on Monday, 7 August.
The NEC members are also understood to have wanted to amend a resolution that effectively banned them from moving to the party’s lists for the provincial legislatures, the National Council of the Provinces and the National Assembly.
Party insiders said the members of the group are aligned with Thami Ntuli, the IFP provincial chairperson and King Cetshwayo district mayor, who they say has his sights set on becoming the party’s leader in KwaZulu-Natal — a position currently occupied by Hlabisa — after the 2024 elections.
The IFP has been on the electoral comeback since 2016, taking back control of municipalities it had lost to the ANC and regaining its status as the official opposition in the province in 2019.
It is expected to continue on its upward trajectory in next year’s provincial and national elections, with councillors hopeful that they will be in line to make their move to the legislature — and parliamentary — benches.
In the province, the real potential of the IFP securing MEC positions, or even the premiership, through a post-election coalition of majority parties has increased the internal competition for positions on the provincial list.
Ngcobo told Mail & Guardian there was no resolution preventing councillors moving to the legislature lists but that the party had not yet held discussions around its list process for 2024.
“We have not even decided on the issue of movement and the list process,” Ngcobo said.
Ngcobo said a national council meeting could be convened by the party president, the national chairperson or via a petition to the secretary general by 20 of its members.
“They decided for reasons known only to them to use the option, 20 of them writing to the secretary general to request that the national council be convened.
“After a discussion at the NEC, it was decided that they must be summoned to come and state their case to the NEC as to what their problems or concerns are, before we can consider convening a meeting of the national council,” Ngcobo said.
He said the request had been vague as the petitioners had not outlined what issues or concerns they wished to have the national council address in their correspondence with his office.
“There will be a NEC sitting on Monday and we are awaiting their confirmation that they will be attending.”