The Inkatha Freedom Party’s powerful national council will next week sit to discuss the party’s possible exit from the national government — a move that senior party members say is the most serious debate yet on this option.
The debate, which has been raging in the party over the past months, coincides with frantic behind the scenes attempts by the African National Congress to seize control of KwaZulu-Natal.
The ANC which held talks with the African Christian Democratic Party’s Jo-Ann Downs on Thursday, is expected to make a ”dramatic” announcement next week. ”There will be fireworks,” said a political insider.
National council members told the Mail & Guardian that the IFP began reviewing its decision to participate in the national government at its two-day meeting last weekend. The insiders said the party’s national council is to resume its discussions on June 28, when it is likely to make its final recommendation.
A report on the relationship between the ANC and the IFP at national and provincial level will be drawn up and presented to the party’s annual conference in early July.
This report will carry a recommendation on whether the party should sever ties with the ANC, with which it has co-governed KwaZulu-Natal since 1994.
The M&G understands that there is considerable pressure on party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi to lead the party out of its frosty and loveless marriage to the ruling party.
Buthelezi is himself said to be very unhappy and IFP national spokesperson Musa Zondi, while refusing to comment on the national council proceedings, said the party’s national conference — the highest decision-making body that meets every year — had taken a decision to withdraw from the national government last year.
”As a compromise the national council was mandated to review the IFP’s participation in the national government. The national council is expected to draw up a report to be presented at the national conference next month [July 11 to 12],” he said.
Last month, while presenting the budget for the department of home affairs in Parliament Buthelezi remarked: ”This might be my last budget speech as Minister of Home Affairs.”
This Wednesday, while participating in the presidency’s budget debate, Buthelezi was critical of the presidency’s failure to bring about reconciliation between the IFP and the ANC.
Buthelezi’s adviser, Mario Ambrosini, said people could interpret the minister’s utterances as ”they wished”.
The drama in KwaZulu-Natal was set in motion by a letter from the IFP national chairperson and Premier Lionel Mtshali to ANC provincial chairperson S’bu Ndebele last Friday demanding that MEC for Agriculture and Environmental Affairs Dumisani Makhaye apologise to him before the end of business on that day.
The letter said that if Makhaye did not oblige Mtshali with an apology, he would fire him. Mtshali could not be reached for comment.
Mtshali had refused to reinstate Makhaye after firing him last year on the grounds that the MEC had allegedly referred to the premier as ”a devil” and ”Hitler”. Mtshali relented in April this year and reinstated him. The IFP insisted at that time that Makhaye should apologise to Mtshali before the legislature.
Speaking to the M&G in April, Makhaye denied he had called Mtshali ”a devil”, and had ”merely drawn an analogy with Hitler”. But added he would apologise if it would help to clear the air.
ANC provincial leaders said that Ndebele had responded to Mtshali’s letter of last Friday, pointing out that the apology was not part of the terms and conditions as he understood it. The ANC chairperson told Mtshali that it had been agred that Mtshali, Ndebele and Makhaye would meet to discuss their differences.
At the time of writing, Mtshali had not yet responded to Ndebele’s letter nor had he taken action against Makhaye for not apologising to him. Senior IFP insiders said the issue was raised at the national council over the weekend, but no decision was taken.
Meanwhile Mtshali’s letter has prompted the ANC in the province — which is also aware of the IFP debate on withdrawing from the national government — to consider its options. The ANC with its allies has a simple majority in the KwaZulu-Natal legislature with one seat more than the combined tally of the IFP and its ally, the Democratic Alliance.
The ANC requires 41seats in the 80-seat legislature to pass a no-confidence motion in Mtshali. While the newly formed Peace and Democracy Party’s lone representative in the legislature, Jan Slabbert, is expected to support the ANC, the party is looking to Downs to deliver the one critical vote.
At the time of going to press, ANC spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said he could not comment, as all these issues were still being discussed.
Last weekend’s IFP national council went on to discuss its relations with the ANC and the Democratic Alliance. Unhappiness was expressed over the state of the economy and the ANC-led government’s handling of the situation in Zimbabwe, among other issues.
The stand-off can be read as an election strategy. The IFP needs to present itself as a force independent of the ruling ANC.
While hard-line IFP insiders denied that the criticism of the ANC government was related to its burgeoning relationship with the DA, the pro-DA lobby within the IFP pointed out similarities between Buthelezi and DA leader Tony Leon’s contribution to the presidency debate.
Buthelezi voiced his party’s discontent in Parliament on Wednesday: ”My concern is that our [the governing coalition’s] agenda is not sufficiently focused on speeding up the process of moving forward, which depends on development, development and development, which, in turn, is a function of economic growth, the fight against crime and our international credibility with the affluent population of developed countries.”
Buthelezi said the IFP and the ANC ”have spent much time discussing the nature and purposes of reconciliation … aimed at redressing the legacy of past conflicts, vilification and propaganda which still bedevil inter-party relations, the political
discourse…
”This foundation of mutual respect and trust has not yet been laid down. Past problems have not been addressed and they continue to bedevil our future. It is still difficult to have open and frank debates and strong criticisms. Our democracy is so much the weaker because of this. For me, this remains perhaps one of the most saddening aspects in the unfinished agenda of this presidency.”
Among the problems that Buthelezi went on to list was the unfulfilled promise made to traditional leaders ahead of the local government elections in 2000 to amend the Constitution to accommodate them. Traditional leaders form a critical support base of the IFP.