Senior ANC, IFP leaders clash on social media amid rising tensions in KZN coalition government

Senior national leaders of the IFP and the ANC have now been drawn into the ongoing tension within the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU).

ANC’s Deputy Minister of Employment and Labour Jomo Sibiya and IFP’s Deputy Minister of Transport Mkhuleko Hlengwa recently engaged in public “sparring” on social media. Sibiya of the ANC raised “questions” about whether a vote of no confidence can be passed against a “premier?” to which IFP leader Mkhuleko Hlengwa responded, stating that the same can be done to a “president.”

Sibiya posted, “Can a vote of no confidence be raised against the premier, a rural Nquthu boy, just asking?” Hlengwa replied, “Yes, just like it can be raised against the president, a rural boy from eMfume, just answering.” When contacted for comment via messages, Sibiya sent laughing emojis and stated he would engage later with The Mercury, while the IFP did not respond to requests for comment.

The “sparring” between these leaders comes following mounting pressure on the ANC to leave the GPU. ANC leaders in the province have complained that their partners in the GPU are weaponising government departments to target ANC-run municipalities and departments.

The latest incident involved the removal of ANC leaders in the Umkhanyakude District Municipality through a motion of no confidence, alongside investigations into the departments of Education and Health, both run by the ANC.

The DA yesterday issued a statement calling for calm heads to prevail, stating it has noted with concern a number of reckless statements being made in public that aim to see the collapse of the GPU.

“The DA in KZN again reiterates its full support for our MECs in government and commends them for the work they are doing to root out corruption and deliver services to the people of our province. We are unapologetic in our determination to turn KwaZulu-Natal around from what the GPU inherited at the start of the 7th Administration.

“Therefore, the DA calls on the IFP to convene a meeting between the GPU partners in the ANC and NFP to come together in the interests of the people of KwaZulu-Natal to resolve any issues that may exist. This meeting should take place within the next two weeks and provide solutions on how issues of contention can be resolved,” said the statement.

However, the ANC Youth League increased its pressure yesterday on the mother body to withdraw from the GPU, describing the coalition government as “the single greatest impediment and a threat to the ANC’s identity and existence in the province.”

The league continues to put pressure on the ANC to leave, stating that if the mother body “still has an iota of conscience, it must leave the GPU.” This is the second time the league has made the call in a matter of days.

It said the GPU has become an arrangement that denudes the ANC of its agency, blunts its ideological sharpness, and reduces the revolutionary movement to a junior partner.

“Our continued participation in the GPU will be to the detriment of the ANC. If the leadership of the ANC in the province still has any iota of revolutionary conscience within them, we expect that they will put the organisation of Mandela and the people of this province before their desires to lead government with the enemy.

“We plead with the revolutionary conscience of the ANC leadership to put the ANC and the people of this province before their narrow self-interests,” it said in a statement following a press briefing.

Political analyst Thabani Khumalo said the GPU will remain. “You should remember that one of the GPU partners admitted that the GPU was initiated by the funders of these parties, so these parties are beholden to those funders who want to keep the radical parties like the MKP and the EFF out of power.”

THE MERCURY