/ 30 May 2011

ANC, NFP team up in KwaZulu-Natal

Anc

The African National Congress (ANC) and the National Freedom Party (NFP) will work together in all hung municipalities the KwaZulu-Natal.

“The ANC and NFP have agreed to enter into a cooperative relationship to constitute a governing partnership to administer over the identified municipal councils wherein the two parties have demonstrated voter support,” ANC provincial chairperson Dr Zweli Mkhize said on Monday.

The May 18 local government elections resulted in 19 hung municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal. The ANC had a majority in 14 of them, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in four and the NFP one — in Nongoma.

Days of negotiations
The agreement announced on Monday was concluded after days of negotiations between the two parties. The IFP had approached the NFP — an IFP breakaway party — to form coalitions, but the latter said it would not start coalition talks with the IFP until it publicly apologised for comments about the splinter group before the elections. The IFP had accused the NFP of being an ANC project aimed at destabilising the IFP.

Mkhize said the ANC-NFP relationship was not based on “political whims”.

“It has been founded on the understanding that the communities under the municipalities that will be co-governed by the ANC and the NFP have instructed us to work together to speed up service delivery.”

Both parties would retain their independent identity, ethos, policies and right to publicly articulate their views.

Aggrieved
Meanwhile, angry ANC members from Pietermaritzburg staged a sit-in at offices of the Moses Mabhida region on Monday vowing not to leave until they were addressed by the provincial leadership.

The members accuse the regional leadership of manipulating party membership ahead of the drawing up of a list of candidates as councillors.

Party member and former councillor Sibongile Mkhize said they were hoping to get answers from the provincial leaders.

“We want the intervention of the provincial executive committee or national executive committee in order to address this matter by disbanding the current region and branches,” she said at the regional offices on Monday afternoon.

The chairperson of the region is Edward Dladla, a former mayor of uMngeni municipality (Howick), who is tipped for a top position in uMgungundlovu district.

In addition to this the members accuse the regional members of positioning themselves in order to get good positions in the seven municipalities that fall under the region.

The members insisted they had been told to wait until the end of the elections when they initially raised concerns over the regional leaders.

“As disciplined party members, aggrieved as we were, we decided to wait because we did not want to be accused of derailing the campaign but now that it is over we are going nowhere,” Mkhize said. — Sapa