By Samkelo Mtshali 
13m ago
Durban – The IFP in KwaZulu-Natal has lashed out at ANC KZN provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli and accused him of being a fly in the ointment as the IFP and ANC at national level are engaged in reconciliation talks to address deadly conflicts of the past between the two parties.
In a media briefing held by IFP KZN chairperson Thami Ntuli and other senior provincial leaders, the IFP national spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said that the ANC’s Ntuli had acted recklessly in accusing Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi of driving a political agenda after bringing to light the imminent withdrawal of new amaZulu King Misuzulu KaZwelithini’s SAPS VIP protection on May 8, less than a day after his announcement as the new amaZulu King.
Following Buthelezi’s alarm at the withdrawal of the King’s SAPS VIP protection, ANC provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli said that Buthelezi, in his capacity as Traditional Prime Minister to the Zulu Nation and the Monarch, had acted without information in his statements about the withdrawal of His Majesty’s protection.
“We hope and sincerely trust that the intended agenda is not to create a schism between the ANC-led government and the Royal House of His Majesty the King for political expediency,” Ntuli said at the time.
In a pressing briefing last week, Ntuli further said that Buthelezi had conflated the IFP, in which he is President Emeritus, with his responsibility as Traditional Prime Minister of the Zulu Kingdom.
Ntuli said that Buthelezi had done this deliberately with the primary objective to create an impression in society that there was no distinction between the IFP and the Zulu Kingdom, which he said the ANC rejected because it did not exist in that way.
The IFP has wasted little time in giving a no-holds-barred response to Ntuli saying that reconciliation talks between the parties at national level should not be undermined by the ANC’s provincial structure in particular and Ntuli’s “brazenly stupid outlook”.
“This is not about an individual who wants to ingratiate himself publicly for some reason or other to advance himself. His problems and challenges within the ANC were in full public display for everybody to see on Monday (where Ntuli was booed at former president Jacob Zuma’s trial in Pietermaritzburg).
“So, a compromised character like that compromising something far bigger than himself is both reckless and irresponsible. We’re talking about people’s lives here, it’s not something we are taking lightly when we say we want reconciliation. It’s not because it’s a buzzword, it’s because we fundamentally recognise that something went wrong and needs to be set right,” Hlengwa said.
He said that the ANC at national level should rein in its “renegades and rebels” and ensure that they do not conflate government issues with the ANC, adding that Buthelezi had raised the issue of His Majesty’s security detail in his capacity as Traditional Prime Minister to the Zulu Nation and Monarch, not as a part of the IFP.
“A response from provincial government and the national ministry of police would’ve been sufficient (on Buthelezi’s concerns on the King’s SAPS VIP protection), it did not need the ANC to respond as it was not a political issue, yet he found a way to insert himself in a matter that did not need them,” Hlengwa said.
* The story will be updated with Mdumiseni Ntuli’s response once it is received.
[email protected]
Political Bureau
Credit IOL