A deadly showdown has ensued between two warring factions in the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) over who should be deployed to the national and provincial parliaments after the 2024 general elections.
The two opposing factions, who are fighting for the control of the IFP, are led by the organisation’s provincial chairperson Thamsanqa Ntuli and national leader Hlabisa Velenkosini Hlabisa
The bad blood between the factions became evident when several IFP senior leaders from both factions stayed away from the party’s meeting with AmaZulu king MisuZulu Ka Zwelithini on Wednesday.
Ntuli’s rivals even threatened their counterparts with violence.
The IFP visited the king in a bid to solicit the king’s support and blessings as it embarked on the road to next year’s polls to unseat the ANC from power in the province.
But other members stayed away and even threatened to spill the blood of their rivals.
Sunday World is in possession of several threatening voice notes shared between party members, in which the speakers vowed that blood would be shed if a certain faction in the party was not allocated critical seats in the national assembly and the KwaZulu-Natal legislature.
“Njengamanje amaqembu mabili eNkatheni.
“Uma singabaqedi thina kuqala, yibo abazoqeda thina.” Loosely translated in English, the message says: “Currently, there are two groupings battling over the soul of IFP. If we do not finish them first, they will kill us.”
Another message written in IsiZulu reads: “Abantu bakaNtuli laba abafuna ukuqeda ngenkatha.” (These are Ntuli’s people who want to destroy the IFP).
Another IFP member also said in IsiZulu: “We should have gone to the meeting and faced them head on and see who would have remained standing.”
Sunday World understands what put a further strain on the already deteriorating relationship between the two factions was an apparent secret meeting where Ntuli supporters met in Jozini, the province’s far north region.
At that meeting the faction deliberated, among others, on swelling the provincial and national election lists.
The meeting, which was allegedly not sanctioned by the party, is said to have been attended by mainly speakers and mayors of various municipalities.
Mukelani Biyela, a staunch IFP supporter, explained that divisions in the party were exacerbated by the national executive committee, the highest decision-making body between conferences, but insisted that the IFP was intact.
“They are killing the IFP by refusing to admit that there is a problem.
“We have leaders who are untouchable in the IFP, and if things are not resolved, there will be bloodshed,” he said.
In an in-depth interview with Sunday World, Ntuli denied harbouring ambitions to be KwaZulu-Natal’s premier should the IFP win the province outright.
