Ann Eveleth
The Inkatha Freedom Party’s 30-day deadline for international mediational on constitutional issues runs out next week and so far the party sees no progress on the issue.
Unless some agreement is reached by Wednesday, party leaders say they will be forced to walk out of the Constitutional Assembly. IFP constitutional affairs spokesman Sipho Mzimela told the Weekly Mail & Guardian this week his party had “heard nothing” from Deputy President Thabo Mbeki since his telephone call to the IFP conference in Ulundi earlier this month, which paved the way for the 30-day reprieve, but said he remained hopeful that the dabate, and the ANC alliance’s constitutional conference this weekend, would yield progress on the issue.
“We have a strict mandate from our constituency. We cannot walk away from our agreements the way the ANC seems to be able to do. If there is no agreement by the deadline, we will be forced to walk out of the Constitutional Assembly,” said Mzimela.
The ANC and NP both say they remain committed to the 19 April agreement on mediation, but argue that the terms of reference need to be clarified.
NP KwaZulu/Natal leader Danie Schutte, who last year helped to broker the agreement which brought the IFP into the election, said his party also felt “there must be greater clarity” on the terms of reference, to reflect changes since the original agreement. But Mzimela called the confusion “puzzling” and said the IFP stood firm in its belief that the terms of reference had already been agreed before the election to include outstanding issues on the Zulu monarchy and the form of state.
Schutte said he could not “see how the monarchy can be an issue, because the constitution was ammended to accommodate it, and it was on that basis that the IFP came into the election.
“If it is still an issue, they must tell us what aspects have not yet been catered for.” Schutte said he believed “the only issues which can be said to be outstanding” were the questions of provincial powers and funding.
The ANC has maintained these questions can and are being dealt with in the theme committees of the Constitutional Assembly. ANC spokesman Jackson Mthembu said the alliance conference this weekend will include a committee on provincial powers and “international mediation could possibly be discussed as part of that”.
Mthembu was “non-committal” on the propects for resolving the dispute before Wednesday.
Mzimela said he was holding on to optimism until the deadline “for the sake of the country,” adding “I think with the ANC we will get somewhere. Part of the main stumbling block has been Roelf Meyer … but I think we can push him aside and make some progress”.
Mzimela warned, however, that if the deadline was ignored, “the consequences of us walking out of the Constitutional Assembly will be bad for the whole country, especially for the Government of National Unity, which is supposed to operate on the basis of co- operation between the parties.
Observers point out that a walk out could heighten the crisis in KwaZulu/Natal, with the IFP demanding extensive federal powers through its control of the provincial government and through the provincial constitution now being drafted.
Zulu chiefs loyal to IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi have also pledged not to allow local government elections in rural areas under their control — affecting about 2,7-million of the province’s 5,2- million voters — and this could lead to confrontation between supporters of the ANC and IFP in these areas.