Is the news that the Inkatha Freedom Party snatched back power in Nquthu yet more fuel to the speculation that the African National Congress will find a way to remove current President Jacob Zuma from his post at the weekend’s National Executive Committee meeting? The result shows a stark turnaround in under a year, which must have those in power worried. Especially given that they’ve been banking on the rural vote. The tide has already shifted with the Democratic Alliance taking power in some of South Africa’s key cities after last year’s municipal election. But with the IFP regaining a semblance of party in Jacob Zuma’s heartland, the tide may not only have shifted, but grown in size. – Stuart Lowman
By Donwald Pressly*
The Inkatha Freedom Party has snatched back power in Nquthu – which means in isiZulu ‘back of the head’ – in a general municipal poll in the northern KwaZulu-Natal town.
The general by-election of both ward and proportional representation seats was held after office-bearers were not elected – as the council was hung with neither the ANC nor IFP able to rule after the 3 August 2016 general municipal elections.
The line up of seats after yesterday’s polling is now IFP 19, ANC 11, Democratic Alliance 1, Economic Freedom Fighters 1 and National Freedom Party 1.
Last August the IFP had 15 seats, the ANC 14, the NFP 2, the EFF one and the DA one. The council has been deadlocked ever since. Between 2011 and 2016, the ANC ruled together with the National Freedom Party.
The IFP won all the ward seats bar three in yesterday’s by-election. Two seats still outstanding this morning also went to the IFP. The allocation of 16 Proportional Representation seats saw the IFP gain five extra seats. The party – led by Mangosuthu Buthelezi – is set rule outright without the need for a coalition or unity government.
SA Local Government Briefing editor Clive Keegan believes the Nquthu result is hugely significant.
He said: “Given the resources that the ANC pumped into the by-elections… given the high profile persons sent to fight in their corner… this is a pretty devastating defeat right in the heart of Zulu territory. It places the national (election) results in 2019 as a precarious prospect for the ANC…KwaZulu-Natal is no longer the invincible stronghold for the ANC. This is a devastating result for the ANC. When you combine the result of this with Beaufort West … the ANC is in electoral trouble.”
Inkatha’s tally in Nquthu is 14 out of 17 ward seats and five out of 16 proportional seats. It is likely that it can also draw on the support from the Democratic Alliance with one seat and the Economic Freedom Fighters with one seat in the new council.
The ANC gained eight proportional seats, taking its tally – with three ward seats – to 11. The National Freedom Party also gained one seat. It is generally in alliance with the ANC, although it is a breakaway party from the IFP.
The combined opposition to the ANC constitutes 21 seats of 33 seats on the council. Nquthu is viewed as a significant vote of no confidence in the administration of President Jacob Zuma, president of the ANC. KwaZulu-Natal is the president’s political heartland.
In the August 3 municipal poll last year the IFP won power in Nkandla, the municipality where the president built his R240 million palatial compound.
The IFP made three significant gains from the ANC at Nquthu. In ward one, Zanele Sithole won 50.33%. The seat was won last year by the ANC’s Shobeni Khuzwayo with 45.80% of the vote. In Ward 10 Fana Hlatshwayo of the IFP won 50.42%. Last year Bhekisisi Ngwenya of the ANC won 44.32%. In Ward 14 Sakhile Masimula of the IFP won 58.65%. Last time the ANC’s Ntokozo Buthelezi won 49.90%.
Significant too is the wipe out of smaller parties, including the Black First Land First, a radical black movement led by former EFF MP Andile Mgxitama. Others included the Academic Congress Union, the African Independent Congress, the African Mantungwa Community, the African People’s Convention, the Forum 4 Service Delivery, the National Democratic Convention, the National People’s Ambassadors and the National Religious Freedom Party.
Closer look at the three ward seats won by the ANC
- In ward 16 Goodwill Molefe of the ANC won with 53% of the vote on Wednesday. Last August he won with 68% of the vote.
- Sibusiso Zikode of the ANC won ward 17 yesterday with 46% of the vote, down from 61.28% last year.
- The other seat won by the ANC saw Moses Gumbi in Ward 6 gaining 46.37% of the vote. This was up from 39.4% last year in August. It was the only seat where the trend against the ANC was bucked.
Meanwhile, Keegan wrote in October last year that Nquthu had been placed under administration after repeatedly failing to elect office-bearers after the August local government elections.
On 18 October last year, local government MEC Nomusa Dube-Ncube said her department had decided to intervene in terms of Section 139 of the Constitution after obtaining legal advice.
#Nquthu they took food parcel from ANC, then they voted for IFP iNkatha Freedom Party kwamnandi eKZN pic.twitter.com/I53gW71Fhi
— Ntando Erasmus (@NtandoErusmus) May 25, 2017
Nquthu’s inability to elect political office-bearers or elect its representatives on the Umzinyathi district council is also impacting on the latter’s ability to constitute itself, Keegan reported.
Dube-Ncube’s intervention followed a ruling by the Pietermaritzburg High Court on 12 October which allowed Malibongwe Mdletshe to take his seat as one of the Economic Freedom Fighters representatives in the Nquthu council.
This should have enabled the council to elect its office-bearers and should have brought to an end an impasse which had paralysed the municipality’s decision-making and service-delivery since the local government elections on 4 August, reported Keegan.
The Nquthu council had failed on numerous occasions to constitute itself by electing office-bearers, most recently because the EFF were engaged in an internal squabble over who was the eligible councillor to represent the party.
Shortly after the August elections, PR councillor Petros Ntshangase was expelled by the EFF and withdrawn as a councillor, leaving the 33-member council tied between the ANC-NFP coalition, with its 16 seats and the IFP-DA-EFF pact with a similar number.
When the EFF attempted to replace Ntshangase with Malibongwe Mdletshe, the former challenged this in the High Court and on 6 September was granted an interim interdict by Judge Rishi Seegobin, in terms of which he was reinstated as the EFF representative.
A council meeting scheduled for 13 September was cancelled when the EFF obtained an order in the Pietermaritzburg High Court preventing it from going ahead pending consideration of the party’s application that Ntshangase be interdicted against taking his council seat. On 7 October, Judge Sharmaine Balton adjourned consideration of which of two contending EFF members was the party’s legitimate councillor until 12 October, thus further delaying the council’s election of office-bearers including the mayor, Speaker, deputy mayor and executive committee.
Nquthu election losses will be the ANC's rural (KZN) shock just as Johannesburg, Tshwane & Nelson Mandela Bay were the urban last year.
— Daniel Silke (@DanielSilke) May 25, 2017
When the matter returned to the High Court on 12 October, Judge Mokgere Masipa set aside the interim interdict of 6 September and ordered Ntshangase’s replacement by the EFF’s preferred candidate, Mdletshe. The main application seeking Ntshangase’s reinstatement was referred to a future date for oral evidence to determine if he had, in fact, resigned. This meant that, with Mdletshe temporarily able to represent the EFF, the council was at last able to elect its office-bearers.
Advocate Max du Plessis, appearing for the municipality on 12 October, said the only potential prejudice if Ntshangase was removed from his position and replaced by Mdletshe was that he stood to lose out on his salary. However, he said the EFF had offered to indemnify him and the party would pay him back if it eventually turned out that he was entitled to his position.
But the court decision did nothing to restore order to the council, as it appeared to mean that Mdletshe could not cast vote until the court makes a final decision. At the same time, the situation has been complicated by another court challenge by two NFP members each claiming the right to represent their party in the council and by the municipal manager’s lengthy absence on sick leave.
At a chaotic council meeting on 18 October, Dube-Ncube’s department announced her decision to place the municipality under administration, which led to objections from the IFP and EFF who said they had won the majority of votes on 3 August and called on the provincial government to allow them to govern the municipality. They accused the ANC of intervening in order to “hide the corruption of the previous ANC/National Freedom Party council”.
Nquthu was a hung municipality. By taking the ANC's wards, we now govern alone. We also take control of the Umzinyathi District Municipality
— Liezl van der Merwe (@Liezl_vdMerwe) May 25, 2017
Dube-Ncube cited the unresolved court cases involving EFF and NFP councillors in Nquthu as justification for her decision. On 18 October, she said in both cases the courts had ordered the councils not to elect leaders until the disputes were resolved, as any election for office-bearers could later be rendered null and void. She said that despite her earlier warning that failure to elect political office-bearers would result in intervention by her department, rival political parties had continued their bickering and her department had no choice but to take over the administration of the municipalities to ensure that services were delivered to the people in the absence of the elected office-bearers.
“I would like to emphasise that the decisions about intervention in municipalities are never taken lightly. But these measures are necessary when there are failures such as those seen in Nquthu…I also wish to stress that the decision to intervene in these two municipalities in terms of Section 139(1)(b) of the Constitution is being taken in the best interest of the local people whom these municipalities are meant to represent.”
The MEC said in October she would shortly name administrators to run the municipality.
- Donwald Pressly is the editor of Cape Messenger.
