NFP rejects claims it deliberately excluded South Coast candidates - IOL

The National Freedom Party (NFP) has rejected claims that it failed to register candidates on the KwaZulu-Natal South Coast to punish political rivals.

The party issued the statement in response to a letter from its chairperson, Mbali Shinga, in which she claimed that the party had failed to register candidates in parts of the South Coast to “punish” certain members.

She said the party had failed to register candidates in some wards in the uMzumbe and uMuziwabantu local municipalities.

Shinga is from the South Coast and for the past few months, she has been fighting the party leadership amid attempts to remove her as MEC for Social Development in the KwaZulu-Natal Government of Provincial Unity.

In her letter, she said: “Our structures prepared and paid for the NFP to contest uMzumbe, uMuziwabantu and Ray Nkonyeni. Despite those efforts, uMuziwabantu was ultimately excluded in its entirety, while Wards 2, 6, 14, 17 and 18 in uMzumbe were also left out.

“I have considered the sequence of events, the internal political circumstances surrounding these elections and the warnings I previously placed publicly on record. I therefore regard what happened in these areas as a deliberate political exclusion of particular structures and candidates.

“This is precisely what I warned against on 24 August: candidate selection must never become another instrument through which internal political battles are fought, and members must not be excluded simply because of their perceived political associations.”

She added that the contradiction had since become even more glaring. NFP president Ivan Barnes had publicly spoken in eDumbe about the party welcoming members and growing its ranks.

“That is indeed what a political organisation should be doing,” she said.

“Yet, while celebrating members joining the NFP in one part of KwaZulu-Natal, existing members and organised structures elsewhere have effectively been denied the opportunity to contest under the very same organisation they have worked to build.

“We have already exhausted the season of explanations, correspondence and endless internal engagement. I previously recorded that I had written, sought dialogue, extended an olive branch and repeatedly attempted to place the elections above internal disagreements. That chapter is closed.

“Our purpose now is to ensure that history records what happened. The people of uMuziwabantu and the affected wards of uMzumbe must know that their local NFP structures did not abandon them. They organised. They prepared. They paid. They were ready to contest. Their absence from the ballot in those areas must not be rewritten tomorrow as organisational weakness or failure by KwaZulu-Natal structures.

“I warned that an organisation cannot claim to be rebuilding while simultaneously shrinking its own political footprint. What has been deliberately excluded will be remembered. What remains standing will move forward,” she said.

In response, the NFP said Shinga had been expelled and had no authority to make pronouncements on behalf of the party.

“It is incorrect and misleading to claim that the NFP ‘deliberately and politically’ excluded wards 2, 6, 14, 17 and 18 of uMzumbe.

“These wards failed to comply with the mandatory Candidate Selection Protocol issued nationally. Furthermore, the IEC system detected that certain individuals were registered elsewhere, contradicting the claim that they were validly nominated in uMzumbe.

“Candidates from Ray Nkonyeni were duly included. Only those removed by the IEC system, primarily because they appeared on multiple party lists, could not be accommodated.

“It is deeply concerning that Ms Shinga continues to inflict political harm on the NFP through persistent misinformation, ill discipline and public theatrics aimed at portraying herself as a political victim,” the party said.

Political analyst Thabani Khumalo said the backstabbing, internal fights and latest episode could finally close the chapter on the NFP.

“This could be the end of the road for the party in local government, and it is unlikely that the NFP will be on the ballot in 2029,” he said.

He said the divisions that had been growing within the party following the death of its founder, Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi, had left the party in a steady decline.