Deputy President Jacob Zuma on Thursday declined to be drawn on whether Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi would play a role in the post-April-election national Cabinet.
Asked about the danger of violence in the KwaZulu Natal province — where Buthelezi’s IFP has been the predominant party up to now — in the run-up to the elections, Zuma told members of the Cape Town Press Club: ”I don’t know whether serving in the Cabinet by Shenge [Buthelezi’s tribal name of endearment] has anything to do with violence.”
He noted that Buthelezi had served in the Cabinet ”when violence was there [in a period when violence was evident]”. Buthelezi has served in the national Cabinet since democracy in 1994 as Minister of Home Affairs. Until former arts, culture, science and technology minister Ben Ngubane recently resigned, the IFP had held three posts in the national Cabinet. Correctional Services Minister Ben Skosana is also from the IFP.
Though Buthelezi has recently hinted that his term of office as minister may be coming to an end, Zuma noted that after the 1999 election there had been no obligation to have minority parties serving in the national Cabinet as had been required by the interim Constitution that governed the construction of Cabinet between 1994 and 1999.
Nevertheless, even the Azanian People’s Organisation — with only one MP — has been brought into the Cabinet during the current Parliament and now the New National Party is also serving in the executive — with a deputy minister of health. This indicates how ”considerate and accommodating” the ruling African National Congress is, he argued.
Inclusion of other parties in the post-election Cabinet will ”depend on a number of factors”, noting that the president in the end makes the choice. Zuma said he could ”not say anything [further] here”.
Speculation is rife that the IFP — which has emerged as the largest party although not with an overall majority in the past two provincial elections in KwaZulu-Natal — will not serve in the national Cabinet following its decision to form a loose alliance with the right-of-centre Democratic Alliance. — I-Net Bridge