Presidential spokesperson Bheki Khumalo confirmed on Thursday that President Thabo Mbeki has decided to replace the Inkatha Freedom Party members appointed as deputy ministers with new appointees.
”The appointment of ministers and deputy ministers is the president’s prerogative alone and in view of the correspondence received this morning [Thursday], the president has decided to appoint two new people as deputy ministers,” Khumalo said.
IFP leaders, Reverend Musa Zondi and Vincent Ngema, sent letters to President Mbeki on Thursday, saying they could not attend the swearing in of deputy ministers before further discussion between the IFP National Council and the African National Congress had reached a ”compressive” agreement on the nature of their relationship.
Zondi was to have been the deputy minister of Public Works while Ngema was to have been appointed deputy minister of Sports and Recreation.
Khumalo said in the letters to Mbeki that both expressed their ”honour” at having been appointed as deputy ministers but that further discussions were needed before they would be sworn in.
In was in this light that the President decided to appoint two new deputy ministers who would be prepared to work and be sworn in, Khumalo said.
At the swearing in ceremony at the Union Buildings, Mbeki said he would later swear in two new appointees in the posts left vacant. ”I will appoint people willing to take the oath and willing to work,” he said.
As the president’s decision was made known in Pretoria, Zondi was still under the impression he was to be a deputy minister.
”I know nothing. Where does that story come from? Things remain the same,” he told Sapa in Cape Town.
New National Party leader and newly appointed Minister of Environment and Tourism, Marthinus van Schalkwyk, responded to the IFP’s decision not to have their candidates sworn in by saying he personally thought it was a ”mistake”.
”That party thinks it need not accept the hand of co-operation and friendship extended to it,” he said, adding that ”at the end of the day it’s not the government that suffers but the IFP”.
Meanwhile, the axing of IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi from the home affairs portfolio came as no surprise, the party said on Thursday.
”We have been telling you for over a year that we were not going to be invited back. We knew it was going to happen,” said IFP spokesperson Musa Zondi.
Zondi denied that the party had met late on Wednesday night to discuss the omission of Buthelezi from the cabinet by President Thabo Mbeki.
”Do not be misled by the SABC. It had nothing to do with that issue. Over the next few weeks we will be holding a series of meetings to deal with housekeeping matters.”
Zondi also denied that Buthelezi had been offered the position of chairman of the National Council of Provinces, a position previously held by new Education Minister Naledi Pandor.
”This is all madness… no offer has been made to us. We knew that it [re- appointment of Buthelezi] was not going to happen. A person can only be disappointed if he expected something.
”It shows the state of relations between the two parties,” he said when asked about the mood of the party leadership.
Zondi said he did not believe Buthelezi’s removal from the cabinet would cause tensions in KwaZulu-Natal.
”That is all media speculation and has nothing to do with the reality on the ground. When we are ready we will release a comprehensive statement reacting to the new cabinet.” – Sapa
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