Apparently spooked by impending floor-crossing legislation, the Inkatha Freedom Party this week demanded loyalty pledges from all its members and pushed five of them from the KwaZulu-Natal legislature to the national Parliament.
In an unprecedented move, which took its own membership by surprise, the IFP also announced that it would organise provincial conferences across the country over the weekend. The party has never previously taken this step.
IFP sources said the members signed the loyalty pledge of their own accord, after party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi announced that IFP members were free to defect.
A member of the IFP’s national council said the five legislature members would be replaced by national MPs ”to strengthen us in the province”.
Five IFP MPs — the hard-core loyalist Velaphi Ndlovu, GB Bhengu, Dr O Boloyi, former Port Shepstone mayor Sybil Seaton and inkosi MW Hlengwa –are likely to replace the outgoing MPLs.
However, party insiders pointed out that the ousted legislature members were based in and around Pietermaritzburg. By forcing them out of KwaZulu-Natal, the IFP might encourage them to defect to another party.
The IFP is vulnerable in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature, where its representation, with 34 seats, is exactly matched by an African National Congress-Minority Front coalition. To gain control, the ANC needs a further four seats.
The IFP’s greatest fear is of a mass exodus to the ANC when floor-crossing takes effect.
The IFP MPLs who have been given their marching orders are Mike Tarr, chairperson of the legislature’s public accounts committee; Maria Xulu; Maurice Mackenzie; former chief whip Ellis Vezi; and Vincent Ngema.
Tarr and Mackenzie are based outside Pietermaritzburg; Xulu and Ngema are from Durban; while Vezi lives in Harding, on the South Coast.
Party insiders say the decision to move these members may be linked to the fact that they are based in southern KwaZulu-Natal, as opposed to the north of the province. As a result, they do not favour the IFP’s demand for the capital to be moved to the northern town of Ulundi.
A senior ANC leader in the province has accused the IFP of launching a ”witch-hunt” and likened its targeting of legislature members to McCarthyism.
Shocked sources at the provincial legislature described the five ousted MPLs as ”the most hard-working”. Some members of the legislature found it ”amazing” that the IFP leadership could suspect MPLs like Xulu — who has often vociferously accused the ANC of attacking her home in Umlazi — as a possible defector.
Paranoia appears to be rife in the IFP, with back-stabbing common, say sources. Accusing fingers have even been pointed at senior members such as MEC for Public Works Celani Mthetwa, an alleged former ”warlord” who enjoys a close working relationship with Deputy President Jacob Zuma and other senior ANC officials.
IFP members are known to have received calls from the ANC trying to ascertain their allegiances. Both IFP and the ANC members are tight-lipped about who could cross the floor, with ANC sources saying they fear potential IFP defectors may be persecuted.
The announcement of provincial conferences is seen as a desperate attempt to bolster the party by creating regional structures across the country.
”How are we expected to prepare for a conference within three days?” asked a senior IFP member.
Other small parties also face a threat at provincial government level. United Democratic Movement leader Bantu Holomisa said his party was the ”most vulnerable” to the floor-crossing law. Several UDM members had already been co-opted by the ruling ANC, lured by the promise of positions.
One such possibility exists in the Mpumalanga legislature where the New National Party expects the lone UDM member, Joe Nkuna, to join its fold.
However in the Eastern Cape legislature, where the UDM is the official opposition, no defections are expected.
Explained one senior legislature member: ”The ANC is performing so dismally in terms of delivery in the province that it is not an attractive proposition for any member. They would all rather be where they are at the moment.”