Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Saturday vowed that the IFP would not relinquish its control of KwaZulu-Natal unless there were new provincial elections.
”Until and unless the will of the people is changed through an election and not through manipulation and trickery, the IFP shall not abdicate from its responsibility of governing KwaZulu-Natal,” he said in a statement.
The ”manipulation and trickery” was a clear reference to the package of defection legislation which the IFP voted against in Parliament.
The first 15-day window for defections was supposed to come into force at midnight on Thursday, but was blocked by an urgent application from the United Democratic Movement (UDM).
A full bench of the Cape High Court sits on Monday to consider whether the suspension of the window should continue until the Constitutional Court decides on the validity of the legislation.
Despite uncertainty over the status of defectors, two KwaZulu-Natal MPLs of the IFP and two from the Democratic Alliance (DA) on Friday announced that they had crossed to the ANC, effectively giving the ANC control of the province for the first time.
Buthelezi said in Saturday’s statement that the will of the people ”decreed that the IFP shall bear the responsibility of governing KwaZulu-Natal”.
”The IFP will not surrender the premiership of KwaZulu-Natal and will make any conceivable and legitimate effort to maintain a government for the province which reflects the will of the people.”
IFP sources on Saturday night said the party had a wide range of options.
One suggested that it might be possible through agreement with other parties for the IFP to keep the premiership even though it was no longer the largest party.
Another suggested that a snap provincial election before the close of the window period was also a possibility.
IFP national representative Musa Zondi said his party’s attitude was that the defection legislation was ”morally repugnant and amounts to defrauding the electorate”.
”Whether it is given the respectability of the law doesn’t make it more moral,” he said. ”Dictators everywhere cloak themselves in legal terms, in constitutional terms.”
He said the party’s course of action would depend on the outcome on Monday’s hearing.
Reacting to Buthelezi’s statement, ANC KwaZulu-Natal representative Dumisani Makhaye said that the electorate had not given the IFP the right to govern the province.
”It gave it 34 out of 80 seats,” he said. ”Premier (Lionel) Mtshali was voted premier by members of the legislature and in that session the ANC was in the majority in the legislature.”
He said what had led to the present situation was not manipulation, but the failure of the IFP and especially Mtshali to provide leadership in the government of the province.
The DA’s KwaZulu-Natal chairman Mike Ellis said his party at national level had called for fresh elections in the Western Cape in view of the disarray in that province’s politics.
”To be consistent, in view of the developing circumstances in the politics of this province, we would support the call for fresh elections in KwaZulu-Natal,” he said.
”People sold their souls in this province, and the electorate needs a decent opportunity to ensure the government of their choice.”
He said the DA was aware of growing tension in the political scene in the province, and urged cool heads from all quarters in trying to resolve ”what has become and extraordinarily complicated situation”. -Sapa