Jaspreet Kindra
In a further sign of the rising tensions between the Inkatha Freedom Party and its African National Congress coalition partner, IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi launched an attack on the government policies on Aids, the rand and Zimbabwe at his party’s national council meeting at the weekend.
According to IFPsources Buthelezi told the council if he were outside the Cabinet he would oppose President Thabo Mbeki on these three issues.
An IFP national council member said his party was becoming increasingly “uneasy” about the way the ANC was governing.
This followed a message supposedly congratulating the ANC on its 90th anniversary last week, in which Buthelezi complained that reconciliation between the parties had not gone far enough, both at grass roots and at the highest levels.
Tensions and political assassinations continued in some areas of KwaZulu-Natal and Gauteng, he said in the message. The KwaZulu-Natal IFP-ANC coalition government was often undermined by internal squabbles among those “who should be equally committed to act with unity of purpose and vision to promote development.
“I am as committed now to the principles, vision and objectives on which the ANC was first founded as I was half a century ago,” Buthelezi said.
However, he said, he was obliged to point out “shortcomings and the situations in which I feel we have followed the wrong policies or taken the wrong actions. I do so because the cause of reconciliation between the ANC and the IFP is the very cause of development and progress in South Africa.”
On his relations with Mbeki, he said: “We cannot ignore that we have encountered significant difficulties, both in terms of policies and from the point of view of our relationship, especially in respect of certain issues, which have been fully canvassed in the national debate.”
A senior IFP member described relations between the two leaders as “cold”.
IFP insiders see as significant the fact that the party was not invited to sit on stage at the ANC’s anniversary celebration in Durban. They point out that Mbeki was silent on the ANC’s relationship with the IFP in his address, while noting the party’s pact with the New National Party as one of the most significant landmarks of last year.
“Things are very bad,” said an IFP source. “My gut feeling is that they [the ANC] are trying to ease us out at national level.”
A major flashpoint between the parties is the government’s lengthy inaction over ANC-linked Director General of Home Affairs Billy Masetlha, whom Buthelezi, as Minister of Home Affairs, wants removed. IFP insiders reacted cautiously to the formation of an inter-party ministerial committee under Deputy President Jacob Zuma to resolve the dispute.
Lack of finality in legislation dealing with immigration and traditional leaders and squabbles in KwaZulu-Natal over the provincial constitution have also heightened tensions.
Senior party members predicted that NNP leader Marthinus van Schalkwyk would be accommodated in the national Cabinet at the expense of an Inkatha minister. The IFP has three national Cabinet ministers and two deputy ministers. After winning a majority in the 1999 KwaZulu-Natal election, Inkatha set up a coalition government with the ANC as part of a national deal to heal the decade-long conflict between the two parties.
The provincial constitution, part of the coalition pact signed in 1999, should address the issue of skewed party representation in the KwaZulu-Natal cabinet an ANC gripe and the role of traditional leaders. However, the drafting process has not moved far.
Last month the ANC withdrew from a “five-a-side meeting” to discuss the constitution after the IFP said it did not have a mandate to proceed as the forum was not officially recognised. Since then, the parties have agreed to participate in a workshop to thrash out differences over the next few weeks.
The ANC’s election coordinator, Peter Mokaba, this week ruled out the possibility of his party ending its relationship with the IFP. “Our relationship, forged for the sake of African unity, is here to stay, like our partnership with [the Congress of South Trade Unions] and the South African Communist Party. The ANC will not expand at the expense of the IFP.”