9 August 2010

The IFP has threatened to withdraw its participation from the sectoral parliaments spearheaded by the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature under the umbrella of "Taking Parliament to the People". The party took this position in the wake of heated exchanges between ANC and IFP women delegates at the Women’s Parliament at Mtubatuba in the uMkhanyakude District last weekend which will culminate in a Women’s Day Rally today.

In a statement, IFP Women’s Brigade Provincial Chairperson Ncamsile Nkwanyana said the IFP Women’s Brigade cannot take part in activities and send their members to events to be denigrated by ANC supporters. Nkwanyana stated:

"Throughout the weekend we were subjected to abuse and denigration of our President by ANC women supporters and there was no one to rebuke them from the side of the ANC. The situation was so bad that that we had to restrain some of our members who were beginning to lose their patience. We cannot therefore be party to events that have the potential to take the province back to the dark days of ANC-IFP violence. As a disciplined party we cannot stoop to the levels of shebeen politics.

"In addition, there is no tangible evidence of any significant benefits these flamboyant programmes bring to the local communities. For instance, almost all service providers that were engaged in this sitting are not from uMkhanyakude District. What is there to benefit the locals then? Worse, the ANC government uses these so-called public participation programmes as tools to promote their party and denigrate IFP-run municipalities as has became evident here as well.

"Unless the ANC leadership assures us that they will drill some sanity into the heads of some of their unruly supporters and unless they are willing to engage other parties on how to rescue these programmes from the jaws of party-political fanaticism, we will reconsider participating in future sessions."