-
NFP members seen gathering at a party event.
The Democratic Alliance (DA) in KwaZulu-Natal says the National Freedom Party’s (NFP) withdrawal from the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU) does not signal the formation of a new provincial government.
DA provincial leader Francois Rodgers says the remaining partners will have to regroup and engage like-minded parties to ensure stability.
Rodgers has also questioned the NFP’s decision, saying he is not sure whether it’s in the best interest of the people of KwaZulu-Natal.
“One wonders if the NFP’s move is about effective service delivery or is there another particular motive and we know the leader previously, when we engaged, he was all about positions. He wanted a position as District Mayor of Zululand at the time. Obviously, what that means, you, who has a hung province, you have 40 seats on either side, but it certainly does not mean that at this particular point there’s a new government in the province. The EFF, MK and the NFP does have the majority.”
VIDEO | In November, NFP threatened to exit the GPU:
Meanwhile, political analyst Professor Bheki Mngomezulu believes the NFP’s withdrawal could be linked to party leader Irvin Barnes’ frustration over his failure to get the mayoral position.
“The reasons he’s putting forth as long as he can present concrete evidence on how Mr Thami Ntuli has failed to deliver on his mandate, then that reason becomes a subsidiary. He’s still aggrieved because initially he was under the impression that the mayoral position of Zululand was going to be given to the NFP when the now COGTA MEC Thulasizwe Buthelezi left the mayoral position in Zululand. Ordinarily Irvin Barnes would take that position or anyone within the NFP would take that position, but that was not part of the agreement, I think that’ where things started going wrong.”
-Reporting by Celumusa Zulu
