Suspended Inkatha Freedom Party chairperson Doctor Ziba Jiyane resigned from the party on Thursday.
In his one-line resignation letter addressed to the party’s secretary general, Musa Zondi, Jiyane said:” I hereby write to resign from all official positions and from the membership of the IFP with immediate effect.”
On Friday, his personal assistant, Phumlani Khuzwayo, said Jiyane will make an announcement on his political future in Durban on Saturday.
”Reports that Jiyane is going to start a new political party are all false.
”We haven’t made any announcements yet. We have only sent out invitations for this event at the Edward hotel in Durban at 11am tomorrow [Saturday],” said Khuzwayo.
Jiyane was suspended from the IFP at the end of July because the party said he had brought its name into disrepute at an ”unauthorised rally” where he said it was operating as ”an internal dictatorship”.
In a statement following his suspension, the party said it resolved to ”suspend Dr Jiyane as the party chairperson with immediate effect and refer the case to the party’s disciplinary committee and prohibit him from participating in any activities of the party pending the outcome of the disciplinary hearing”.
The national council said Jiyane’s speech had been ”universally regarded as a bid for the leadership of the party”.
It also criticised him for saying the IFP national council was an undemocratic body and not legally constituted.
Following his suspension, Jiyane said he no longer believed there was a future for him in the IFP and was considering his options, which included starting his own party or joining another. — Sapa