The Inkatha Freedom Party apparently wants to subject its national council members to a lie detector test to establish whether they have leaked confidential information to the media and other organisations.
The IFP’s intentions were disclosed at its council meeting during the party’s national conference in Ulundi two weeks ago, the Mail & Guardian has established.
The M&G has learnt that the IFP had engaged the services of Durban-based company LieTech to conduct the tests, and the company had already started doing some work for the party.
National council members at the conference were asked to fill in a questionnaire prepared by the company. Among the questions were:
“Will you be willing to undergo a lie detector test?”
“Have you ever leaked National Council minutes?”
“Have you ever leaked the speech of our president, Prince MG Buthelezi?”
“Who do you suspect is the mole within our party?”
“What must happen to the mole? Must he be suspended from the party?”
The IFP’s national organiser, Albert Mncwango, said he was not aware that the party had hired the services of a lie detecting concern, nor had he filled in any questionnaire.
He said, however, that the party had the “right to do whatever it takes to beef up its internal security”.
LieTech’s Ben Lombaard said he could neither confirm nor deny that the IFP had hired the services of his company. “We respect our client’s confidentiality,” he said.
The IFP’s lie detector tests come shortly after the M&G revealed that the party was plotting to use taxpayers’ money to enhance the profile of its provincial ministers and to weaken the African National Congress ahead of the 2004 elections.
At the time, the IFP accused the M&G of “having either bribed or stolen details of the plan from its offices in Durban”.
Meanwhile, a party insider said that IFP chairperson Lionel Mtshali had claimed in his address to the council that an ANC-prepared hit-list was in circulation. Mtshali claimed the name of the IFP chairperson of the provincial transport portfolio committee, Mandla Malakoana, topped the list.
Mncwango said he was not aware of any such accusation made by Mtshali at the conference, but added: “I was the one who had raised the issue of the hit-list in 2000. I am also on that hit-list, so was the former mayor of Nongoma [Bhekuyise] Sikhonde, who was killed [in 2000]. I was vindicated.”
According to the IFP’s election plan, Malakoana was tasked with cutting ANC provincial transport minister S’bu Ndebele’s public relations budget.
The ANC’s Mtholephi Mthimkhulu said that his party “did not squander its time plotting other people’s downfall, when it has serious issues such as poverty confronting us at the moment”.
Also at the Ulundi conference, the new royal high commissioner, Celani Mtetwa — who is perceived as being close to the ANC — was seen trying to restore his credibility.
Party insiders said Mtetwa told the council that he had managed to convince the ANC’s Dumisani Makahye to withdraw comments made in November last year, in which he described Mtshali as a “devil”.