South Africa’s main black opposition leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has rejected a report that there is a rift between him and the national chairperson of his party, KwaZulu-Natal Premier Lionel Mtshali.
The Sunday Times reported at the weekend that Inkatha Freedom Party leader Buthelezi and the premier had fallen out over the premier’s failure to find a place in his provincial legislature for former provincial minister Celani Mtetwa — as royal commissioner to the king of the Zulus — following a deal that saved the premier’s hold on power earlier this year.
The controversy follows a speech at a recent IFP national coordinating committee — apparently leaked to the media — in which Buthelezi was reported to have described Mtshali as a man who “seems not to have had the wisdom or prudence to follow the leadership which I gave him”.
The newspaper also reported that Buthelezi complained that he regretted that his guidance as a party leader “has not been sufficiently taken into account and respected”.
But Buthelezi said in a statement released on Monday that Mtshali was as strong as “the rock of Gibraltar” and an excellent administrator and objected to the fact that private correspondence and party discussions had been reported
in the Sunday Times.
The fact that the premier was in power 13 months after the African National Congress had first plotted to remove him “proves that a party [the IFP] may rise to any challenge”.
Mtetwa lost his post as public works provincial minister in a deal with the ANC. It was agreed to exchange — for Mtetwa’s post — two positions in the Cabinet for the ANC and an end to their planned removal of Mtshali from power.
This followed the defection of IFP and Democratic Alliance members in the provincial legislature to the ANC earlier this year.
The ANC now holds the most seats of any party in the legislature.
In a statement responding to the Sunday Times report, Buthelezi said: “I reject with contempt the report.”
Although Buthelezi did not deny making the reported statement, he said instead: “There is nothing wrong for the premier and I to engage in debates. It is utterly malicious and unprofessional for newspapers to publish confidential discussions we have in our party, and portray them as if they were something extraordinary and make up a story about a non-existing rift.”
Buthelezi said further: “He [Mtshali] is a strong man of principle who is holding the hottest and most difficult political seat in the whole of South Africa.”
It was still not clear on Monday if the premier would succeed in placing Mtetwa in the post. An IFP source indicated that legislation had been put to the provincial cabinet to create the position for Mtetwa and although it had been supported by parties in the cabinet — including the ANC — it had not received their support in the legislature.
“The matter remans there at the moment,” said the source.
ANC KwaZulu-Natal spokesperson Mtholephi Mthimkhulu was not immediately available for comment on Monday. — I-Net Bridge