Senior Inkatha Freedom Party MP Theresa Millin has defected from her party to form a new party — understood to be the African Independent Party.
Millin was recently moved from the KwaZulu-Natal legislature to Parliament by her party amid speculation within that party’s ranks that she would switch political parties. With the IFP/Democratic Alliance grouping in that province holding a slim majority, the party opted not to take chances and redeployed her to national level.
While Millin was not taking calls this morning, parliamentary sources confirmed that she had signed the required papers and was establishing her own party. As the sole representative of a political party, she will be able to draw on special allowances enjoyed by a party leader. She told her former party colleagues that she would not be standing again in next year’s national election.
IFP representative Rev Musa Zondi was also not available for comment.
Speculation is also rife in the corridors of parliament that at least two more IFP MPs are ready to cross to other parties — with some speculation that they would be joining a new party led by Patricia de Lille, the firebrand Pan Africanist Congress MP.
De Lille was also not taking calls today during a blizzard of speculation about her future.
The defection of Millin reduces the IFP representation in the National
Assembly to 32 of 400 MPs. – I-Net-Bridge