14 November 2007

The IFP has accepted KwaZulu Natal Premier Sibusiso Ndebele’s legal challenge to the public concerns voiced by the Leader of the Official Opposition about the Ndebele family’s business operations. 

“We in the Official Opposition only wish to remind the Premier that he is a public figure and by taking the legal route he will put on trial the entire provincial government,” said Dr Lionel Mtshali. 

The IFP has also commented on the Premier’s announcement of the legal challenge: “This extraordinary eruption of bile says even more about the style of Mr Ndebele’s government since 2004 than it does about its substance, which is, of course, a worrying lack of transparency,” said Dr Mtshali. 

The fact that the Premier views the political opposition and its oversight function as a “nuisance” shows, according to the IFP, a wholesale erosion of culture of multi-party democracy, nurtured in the province by the IFP-led provincial government between 1994 and 2004. 

“Is the Premier saying that his long protective custody over the sleaze-infested administration of the Department of Agriculture by former Head of Department Dr Jabulani Mjwara earned him and his family no private kick-backs? – said Dr Mtshali. 

The IFP links some of its concerns about the Ndebele family’s private business interests to the ANC’s delaying tactics regarding the tabling of the forensic report which maps Dr Mjwara’s reign of terror at Agriculture, including the single biggest instance of government overspending in the history of KwaZulu Natal. 

The Official Opposition also recalls the Premier’s histrionic reaction to the IFP’s revelations in March about Mr Ndebele’s threat of withdrawing government advertising from the Independent Newspapers group following investigative coverage of mismanagement at Agriculture by the Sunday Tribune. 

“The Premier publicly denied his threat and accused the IFP of misleading Parliament, which, in turn, obediently initiated disciplinary proceedings against the Leader of the Official Opposition,” said Dr Mtshali 

The IFP later published a text message sent in the Premier’s name by the then Director General of Premier’s Department Professor Mandla Mchunu instructing all Heads of Department across the provincial government not to advertise in the Sunday Tribune. 

“As a result, Parliament’s much-publicised disciplinary action against the Leader of the Official Opposition has since been quietly shelved never to be heard of again,” said Dr Mtshali and confirmed that the IFP stands by its story about the Ndebele family’s business interests and will reveal its sources in due course.

Contact: Dr Lionel Mtshali, 083 256 4902