Infighting has plagued the NFP since the death of founder Zanele Magwaza-Msibi in 2021.
(Photo by Gallo Images /Sowetan / Mohau Mofokeng)
The embattled National Freedom Party (NFP) appears to have defied the odds — and its own internal factional battles — by making it onto the ballot for the 29 May national and provincial elections.
The party’s leadership made the deadline for submission of party lists and deposits to the Electoral Commission of South Africa (IEC) on Friday and will field candidates nationally and in five of the nine provinces.
They did so despite an ongoing internal conflict that has been raging since the death of the party’s founding president, Zanele Magwaza-Msibi, in September 2021, which saw the creation of parallel structures and the holding of duplicate conferences by rival factions in the party.
Zandile Myeni, the eThekwini deputy mayor who unsuccessfully contested the party presidency in December, confirmed that the NFP had managed to submit candidate lists for national government, KwaZulu-Natal and four other provinces.
“Yes we are registered,” Myeni said.
But the party still needs to navigate its way through two court battles that are still to be concluded, and which could see the current leadership elected at the end of last year declared unlawful.
The first of these is a challenge to the outcome of the December 2023 elective conference; the second an application to the supreme court of appeal for the outcome of a 2019 conference that was set aside by the high court, to be declared lawful and binding on the party.
The NFP was formed by Magwaza-Msibi — a former Inkatha Freedom Party national chairperson — and her supporters when they broke away from the IFP after she fell out with its then president, the late Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
The party took 10.4% of the vote in KwaZulu-Natal in 2011 — and six seats in the National Assembly in 2014, but in 2016 it failed to make the deadline to pay deposits and was unable to contest the local government elections in most of the province’s municipalities.
In 2019, the party was reduced to two seats in parliament and one in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature, while in 2021 it managed to secure seats in eThekwini, eDumbe, Nongoma and other municipalities in the province.
In October, the IEC gave the party until this month to sort out its internal issues — which had been the subject of a series of court battles between two factions in the party — or face being barred from participation in the elections.
Although it managed to hold an elective conference — one of the IEC’s conditions for participation — the result is now being challenged in court.
The party’s funding from the IEC had also been withheld by the electoral body because of the NFP leadership’s failure to submit its audited financial statements last year, compounding its woes.
This was lifted after its financial statements were submitted to the IEC and just over R6 million released to the NFP earlier this year.
The NFP is in an alliance with the ANC in eThekwini — where its support helped the governing party retain the city — and other municipalities in the province.
Although it holds only one legislature seat, the loss of support on the part of the ANC and the new threat of the uMkhonto weSizwe Party means it might be called upon to keep it in power in the province after May.
But it is uncertain whether the party will have the ability to draw voters at the provincial and national level in the absence of the unifying figure of Magwaza-Msibi.
While the two court rulings may have an effect on the current leadership lineup, both groupings in the NFP appear to be committed to campaigning for the party going into the elections.
Canaan Mdletshe, who served as secretary general but whose faction boycotted the December conference, said they would campaign for the NFP no matter what the outcome of the court cases.
“Unfortunately there are two pending cases, one to be heard on 30 April, where some comrades elected during the purported elective conference in December 2023 are challenging the very same conference and nullifying it,” Mdletshe said. “Our matter is still to be heard to appeal in the SCA.”
But “anything happening in the courts will not stop us from vigorously campaigning for the NFP”, Mdletshe said.
The NFP also faces a liquidation battle with Ezulweni —the printing company that had also taken the ANC to court over unpaid election debts — for more than R25 million it owes the company.
Mdletshe said the party leadership was “seized with the matter”.
The IEC on Wednesday confirmed that the NFP was registered for both the national and provincial elections.