The IFP national executive committee (NEC) has blocked a meeting which sources claim was requested by party president Velenkosini Hlabisa’s opponents, who were intending to use the gathering to have him removed.
This amid accusations by Hlablisa’s detractors that he turned the other way when his supporters in the party defied the party T-shirt resolution, that all IFP members should wear T-shirts bearing the face of IFP founder, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
Hlabisa’s opponents, who are demanding that he be placed on precautionary suspension for allegedly encouraging his supporters to wear T-shirts bearing his own face, recently wrote to IFP secretary-general, Siphosethu Ngcobo.
In a letter seen by the publication, the 20 IFP senior members told Ngcobo that the T-shirt matter has an impact on “public perceptions of the party”.
On receiving the letter, Ngcobo then wrote to Hlabisa and Buthelezi, informing them that he was in the process of convening a national council meeting as requested by the group of 20.
“In terms of clause 4.27 of the Constitution, I have decided to convene the requested meeting of the national council …” Ngcobo said in a letter to Hlabisa.
The national council is the IFP’s highest decision-making body, which has the power to even remove the party’s president.
However, during the IFP national executive committee’s regular meeting held on Monday, it was resolved that the national council meeting — which Ngcobo had indicated should take place in Empangeni this past Monday — should not go ahead.
In a statement released by IFP national spokesperson, Mkhuleko Hlengwa, the national executive committee (NEC) said it had resolved to “dismiss the petition” by the group of twenty.
The national council is a serious body of the party that cannot be convened willy-nilly. The national council will be ordinarily convened by the president for its normal business at a date to be determined.
Hlabisa was elected unopposed as the new leader of the IFP at the party’s 35th conference held in August 2019.
His election came at the back of strong support from Buthelezi, who relinquished the IFP top leadership position following Hlabisa’s election.
However, despite Hlabisa having been endorsed by Buthelezi, some senior party members remain of the view that the current IFP deputy president, Inkosi Mzamo Buthelezi, should have been the IFP founder’s successor.
A teacher by training, Hlabisa is currently the leader of the official opposition in the KZN Legislature, where the IFP is the second largest party.
As IFP president, Hlabisa is currently presiding over an organization which is on a growth trajectory.
In the 2021 local government elections, the IFP under Hlabisa snatched several KZN municipalities from the KZN ANC — which is currently under threat of being booted out of power in KZN in next year’s general elections.
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