Wonder Hlongwa
President Nelson Mandela’s support for a merger between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party this week spurred IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi into an unprecedented attack on Sipo Mzimela, his senior Cabinet and party colleague.
Buthelezi hinted that Mzimela, who is correctional services minister and IFP deputy chair, could be on his way out of the party. Mzimela earlier wrote in a Sunday newspaper that he supported the parties merging.
Buthelezi told the Mail & Guardian: “Dr Mzimela embarrassed the party by shooting his mouth [off]. We tried to reason with him, that in fact it was out of order for him as a very senior member of the national council to talk publicly about the matter.”
Buthelezi later told a press conference: “At one stage [Mzimela] said to me the ground is fertile because the ANC is failing to deliver, but again he wrote a letter to the editor of the Mercury to say the ANC was delivering.”
He did not spell out Mzimela’s future, save to say: “I don’t think any party will tolerate a member doing what he is doing.”
And in another clear sign of division among the top ranks of the party, Buthelezi said Mzimela had accused other IFP ministers – Deputy Minister of Safety and Security Joe Matthews and Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology Lionel Mtshali – of ganging up on him.
A senior party member told the M&G this week that the national co-ordinating committee of the IFP, of which Mzimela is deputy chair, has distanced itself from Mzimela, making it clear they were not impressed by “his attempts to ingratiate himself with the ANC leadership”.
He said: “The unhappiness about Dr Mzimela predates this latest issue. This flurry of letters that we have seen in the press, which have been quite unprecedented for any IFP leader to do – just to take up a position without consulting the leadership – is symptomatic of the estrangement between Mzimela and other senior leaders.”
He said Mzimela appeared to have lost Buthelezi’s confidence, and that this signified a parting of ways.
Mzimela defected from the ANC to the IFP in the mid-Eighties to become that party’s representative in the United States. On his return, Buthelezi offered him the public works ministry in the former KwaZulu government.
Mzimela was not available for comment at the time of going to press.