It was conservative British MP Enoch Powell referring to the departure of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher from Downing Street, who said: “All political careers end in tears.”
He could have been referring to National Democratic Convention (Nadeco) founder and leader Ziba Jiyane, who is likely to find himself in a political cul-de-sac when the party holds its first elective federal conference on Saturday.
Jiyane, who launched the party in August last year, drafted its constitution and poured a lot of money into its war chest, now appears destined for the political wilderness.
An internal faction, which recently suspended him and called him a dictator, appears determined to end his political career.
However, a high court judge has set aside the suspension allowing Jiyane to participate in the upcoming elective conference.
Jiyane’s woes stem from his decision to dissolve the party’s executive committee after it disagreed with his choice of replacement for the late John Aulsebrook, the party’s KwaZulu-Natal member of the legislature who died in a car crash.
Jiyane had wanted party organiser Bonga Nzuza to replace Aulsebrook, while Hawu Mbatha’s faction preferred Mhlabunzima Mthuli. Now the knives are out for Jiyane and Saturday could mark an end to his political career, unless he decides to return to the IFP.
At the height of Nadeco’s infighting, Jiyane met with IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi and tried to woo him into an alliance by offering him the prospect of their parties becoming a bulwark against ANC dominance. Jiyane said he went to Buthelezi because there was nowhere else to go after relations with the ANC soured.
“I met with Buthelezi, who regarded me as a mortal enemy because we had a problem and no party was friendly to us. “We were isolated. So I went to explore if the IFP leadership was prepared to talk to us. Previously, Buthelezi had refused to recognise us as a political party.”
Buthelezi, whose party lost seven MPs to Nadeco during last year’s floor-crossing, agreed, hoping this would swing five hung municipalities his way. Concrete moves in this direction were subsequently thwarted by Jiyane’s suspension. The leadership that comes out of the conference will determine whether Nadeco cooperates with the IFP or the ANC.
Ironically, Jiyane, who now wants Buthelezi to throw him a political lifeline, initially left the IFP claiming that Buthelezi was a dictator.
Jiyane is a reformist who shook the conservative pillars of the IFP when the rank and file elected him as national chairperson over Buthelezi loyalist Lionel Mtshali.
The victory cost him Buthelezi’s favour and he left the IFP a year later amid allegations that he was leading a group of “modernists”, who were plotting to remove the “old guard” including Buthelezi. Jiyane denied the allegations.
For a while Nadeco promised sanctuary to IFP modernists and even attracted Buthelezi’s son, Tutu, along with thousands of IFP die-hards.
Now Mbatha, who Jiyane poached from the African Christian Democratic Party, appears determined to write his political epitaph.
Jiyane told the Mail & Guardian that his latest political venture was not worth the energy and sacrifice he poured into it.
“It’s not worth it. I am now consoling myself by hoping we will have strong structures after the conference. The problem was that we had leaders who were not democratically elected, yet we are a demoÂcratic party.”