NFP leadership battle escalates: Shinga tells radio show she will fight removal
The fight among senior leaders of the National Freedom Party (NFP) for the party’s single seat in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature has spilled into the public domain, with party leaders trading accusations on national radio.
The party plans to adjust its list of Members of the Provincial Legislature (MPL) for the KwaZulu-Natal legislature to deploy its president, Ivan Barnes, in place of the current member, Mbali Shinga. Shinga currently serves as the MEC for Social Development and is also the provincial chairperson of the party.
Tensions escalated during a radio interview on Tuesday afternoon when the party’s acting Secretary-General (SG), Bheki Xaba, was discussing this development. Shinga called in to the show to express her concerns about being removed.
“The SG has stated that I have not done anything wrong that led to calls for my removal. He has clearly stated that they want to remove me so that they can deploy the president because the president needs to have bodyguards. I am being made a scapegoat,” she said on the show.
Shinga continued, “This did not start recently. Since I took over the position, I have been tormented and harassed. Even when I was told that I was being removed, I was told that they are not asking me to go; they are telling me,” she said.
Vowing to fight attempts to remove her, Shinga stated that this action was unjustified.
Pressed yesterday on whether Shinga intends to take the matter to court, her spokesperson Thuba Vilane would only say: “She is still in the legislature, she is still the MEC and nothing has changed.”
Xaba explained their intention to deploy Barnes to the legislature: “We cannot have a president of the party who is not deployed. We want to deploy the president so that he has bodyguards and is able to do the work of the party all over the country.”
Shortly after the elections, following negotiations that led to the formation of the Government of Provincial Unity in KZN, there was talk that Barnes would be appointed as the mayor of Zululand, but that did not materialise.