South Africa
KwaZulu-Natal leadership licking its wounds

afrol News, 10 January - As the political crisis in South Africa's KwaZulu-Natal province has found its peaceful solution, the protagonists of the conflict are licking their wounds. The KwaZulu-Natal branch of South Africa's ruling ANC party takes the honour of having "saved the province from a political crisis," a statement says. The five defectors to the ANC, meanwhile, are heading towards troublesome times.

The ANC and the Zulu nationalist Inkatha Freedom Party, which governs KwaZulu-Natal and participates in South Africa's national government, on Wednesday reached a compromise to the conflict that threatened to "cause a return to the violence which led to lives being lost on a daily basis in KwaZulu-Natal before the reconciliation between the Inkatha and ANC eight years ago," as COSATU, South Africa's leading trade union, had put it. 

Five KwaZulu-Natal parliamentarians from different parties had defected to the local ANC, threatening to produce an ANC majority in the provincial legislative. An amendment to the Constitution proposed by the ANC, permitting floor-crossing during a legislative term, would have turned the equilibrium in the province - but the Inkatha party openly threatened to dissolve parliament and arrange early elections. Inkatha leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi was also said to have threatened to step down from his office as national Minister of Home Affairs. On Wednesday, the ANC withdraw the disputed part of the bill and the Inkatha temporarily halted the process to dissolve the provincial parliament.

In a communiqué released today by KwaZulu-Natal's ANC spokesman Mtholephi Mthimkhulu, the local party says it was behind the original proposal to allow floor-crossing during a legislative term, having in mind a takeover of the provincial government. "It must be put on record that the ANC is not a Non-Governmental Organisation," Mr Mthimkhulu justifies his party's action. "It is a political party that fought for democracy in this country," he explains.

- It was the ANC KwaZulu-Natal leadership that proposed to the [ANC's] National leadership the deletion of the retrospective clause in the Bill [which would have permitted floor-crossing], Mr Mthimkhulu states. The ANC leadership, under President Thabo Mbeki than had decided to push this proposal forward. 

As the political crisis in the province started to erupt, President Mbeki started to get cold feet. He interrupted his holidays, went to KwaZulu-Natal together with Vice-President Jacob Zuma and gave a written guarantee to the province's PM, Lionel Mtshali of the Inkatha, that the disputed clause would be eliminated from the bill. 

However, the ANC's "KwaZulu-Natal leadership was constantly consulted when the President and National officials were dealing with the ANC approach on averting the political crisis that was looming in KwaZulu-Natal," Mr Mthimkhulu states, denying there was a split between the provincial and national party organisation.

The ANC in KwaZulu-Natal wanted to underline that its compromise deal with the Inkatha had "saved the province from a political crisis," the spokesman says. Now, it was time for the "the ANC and Inkatha leadership to constructively engage afresh in negotiations around the 1999 Coalition Agreement between the two parties to co-govern the province," Mr Mthimkhulu says. 

Meanwhile, the five defectors to the ANC that sparked the crisis are becoming a new focus of discussion. Being named in the press, the five have been left in the cold by their respective parties. The South African daily 'Independent' however has found that the defectors are now heading ANC lists to assure their re-election to the KwaZulu legislative. 

Concerns had already been expressed that these five had been "given special treatment by being placed ahead of other ANC members who were previously in line for seats in the legislature," the daily reports. It has also been speculated in that the defectors had cut a deal with the ANC before the crisis broke loose. ANC spokesman Mthimkhulu denies all these charges. "They did not join the ANC just for positions, but they were following their own beliefs," he maintains.

Sources: Based on ANC, Inkatha, South African govt. and press  and afrol archives 

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