A new war of words erupted between the African National Congress and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) on Tuesday sparked by the recent establishment of the National Democratic Convention (Nadeco).
In the morning, the ANC rejected as ”preposterous” an assertion by IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi that the ruling party was behind the birth of the new party.
Buthelezi hit back in the afternoon, saying his accusation appeared to have touched a raw nerve.
”I will not be deflected by… cheap shots,” Buthelezi said.
The ANC’s spokesperson in KwaZulu-Natal, Mtholephi Mthimkhulu. said it was ironic that the IFP was voluntarily part of the ANC-led provincial government ”to which Buthelezi is always unleashing the outrageous broadside”.
Buthelezi’s assertion that the ANC was behind the implosion of the IFP and the birth of Nadeco was preposterous, Mthimkhulu said.
”His daily song that South Africa is drifting towards becoming a one-party state lacks political science logic because the Constitution of the land guarantees multiparty democracy,” said Mthimkhulu.
Nadeco was formed by former national chairperson of the IFP, Ziba Jiyane, in August.
Mthimkhulu claimed Buthelezi’s attack on the ANC was ”a gasp of a veteran politician whose leadership star is rapidly waning”.
He said the ANC was now openly challenging the IFP to say why it was ”clinging on the ANC’s backside in the province, while it is continuously backstabbing [the ANC]”.
Mthimkhulu asked: ”Is it the IFP’s so-called morality to be in government with the ANC while on the same breath [the IFP] is apportioning blame to the ANC for the exodus of progressive-minded members in the IFP?”
He said the IFP had itself to blame for failing to transform into a modern political party, instead remaining a traditional ”one man’s show”.
In response, Buthelezi said Mthimkhulu’s complaint suggested that he could not exercise his role as the leader of the largest predominantly black opposition party because of the IFP’s participation in the ANC-led government.
”It is strange that even when I served in the government of national unity, under the ANC, I was free to voice the views of my party. Even when the IFP secured a majority and served in a coalition with the ANC, this did not stop ANC leaders in the provincial and national government from criticising me and the IFP,” said Buthelezi.
He said Mthimkhulu was clearly trying to bring about a crisis because he and others were ”salivating over the three MEC posts that were offered to the IFP by the ANC”.
However, Buthelezi stressed that the IFP had not asked for it.
”Are not my criticisms about the lack of progress in service delivery and the ANC penchant for wasting money on glitzy imbizos, a key part of the IFP’s oversight role in the ‘multiparty democracy’ which Mthimkhulu claims is so vibrant?
”He clearly only has an elementary grasp of the concept of opposition and the vital checks-and-balances of democracy,” said Buthelezi.
He said he stood by his comments that South Africa was drifting towards a ”de facto one-party state”.
”I repeat that having won 70% of the popular vote in the 2004 general election, the ANC, in real terms, has confidently exercised 100% of the political power ever since.”
Buthelezi said the reality was that the IFP was emerging as the core block of a democratic, non-racial alternative to the ANC’s failed government.
”I will not be deflected by Mthimkhulu’s cheap shots in this great task,” he said. – Sapa