Ms Haffajee
City Press
Via email:[email protected]
IFP RESPONSE TO PADDY HARPER’S ARTICLE ‘UNSTOPPABLE MAGWAZA-MSIBI’ (CITY PRESS: 03 FEBRUARY 2011)
Paddy Harper’s zealous endorsement of Zanele Magwaza-Msibi and her newly-formed National Freedom Party (NFP), in his article “Unstoppable Magwaza-Msibi” (30 January 2011), is a poorly researched emotional rant. He has departed from the basis of good journalism: the truth, which starts with the professional discipline of assembling and verifying facts.
Harper claims that 49 out of 62 IFP councillors in eDumbe, Nongoma and Ulundi have joined the NFP. The facts disagree. In Nongoma, only 2 councillors have openly identified themselves with the new party. And there is not a single branch chairperson or councillor in Ulundi that has defected from the IFP.
Harper then claims that, when Magwaza-Msibi took the IFP to court in November, the High Court asked “both sides to settle the matter between themselves”. The judgment says nothing of the kind. It clearly states that the IFP has abided by its Constitution, its structures are legitimate and its leadership sound. Indeed, Magwaza-Msibi’s court bid was exposed as a ploy to wrest power from the IFP by any means possible.
Going further back, Harper claims that campaign posters of Magwaza-Msibi “were withdrawn” before the last elections. That never happened. But it feeds the lie that she was persecuted in some way. Another lie is Harper’s claim that Magwaza-Msibi was replaced with Blessed Gwala, whom Harper claims was fired as an MEC. Mayor Gwala was never asked to vacate his position as MEC, and left when his term of office expired.
Having run out of nonsense, Harper resorts to his traditional anti-IFP rhetoric when he complains that the “IFP’s parliamentary cadre is thick with elderly white members”. In truth the IFP’s mix of representatives in Parliament and the Legislature is no different from the ANC’s or the DA’s. We have always been a multi-racial party, which is one source of our strength.
Magwaza-Msibi’s new-found popularity in Harper’s eyes is quite surprising. When she topped the IFP’s provincial party list as Premier candidate in KwaZulu-Natal ahead of the 2009 provincial elections, the media, including the City Press, largely rejected her as a viable alternative to her ANC counterpart – and, ultimately, so did the majority of voters.
But now Harper has suddenly discovered Magwaza-Msibi’s dormant voter appeal. Indeed, he sees her as a “messiah”. Even though the NFP has no policies, ideology or views on how to strengthen democracy and good governance. And even though Magwaza-Msibi’s saga is one of unfettered personal ambition.
Harper has failed to critically analyze the emergence of this new political party and the impact it will have on our political dispensation and our democracy. He ignores the fact that South African voters, as research and practice have repeatedly demonstrated, prefer established political parties to breakaway groups. His article reads like a public endorsement.
But when the glitter settles, Magwaza-Msibi will be exposed as a leader without a vision or a purpose. And, before long, she will be a leader without a following. It is astounding that Harper has failed to contemplate the future.
Liezl Van Der Merwe
IFP, CAPE TOWN
