Joburg - The EFF has alleged that senior leaders of the IFP are planning a political assassination of their party’s secretary-general, Marshall Dlamini.
The EFF said it received a briefing from SAPS intelligence a few days ago.
KwaZulu-Natal has been known in the past for bloodbaths due to political killings; this has alarmed the EFF, which said it received this intelligence report unprovoked and without approaching police.
EFF national spokesperson Sinawo Thambo said the reliable intelligence reports illustrate that senior leaders of the IFP believe that Dlamini is responsible for the collective decision they took to initiate and support motions of no confidence against IFP mayors in several municipalities in KZN.
“The EFF condemns with contempt the plots to assassinate our secretary-general or any leader for selfish and narrow political purposes. We do not take these reports lightly because the province of KZN has been defined by many political assassinations for a very long time, a habit which the EFF has never been associated with and has condemned since our formation 10 years ago,” Thambo said.
He added: “When IFP members recurrently, stubbornly and physically disrupted meetings of the EFF in different parts of KZN in 2014, the leadership of the EFF organised a meeting with the leadership of the IFP under its former president Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi and agreed that violence cannot and should never be an instrument of political persuasion.”
Thambo said at the 2016 Local Government Elections it was primarily the EFF that played a leading role in ensuring that the IFP participated in the government of the City of Joburg. Thambo said after the 2021 Local Government Elections, the EFF played a central role in voting against the ANC and establishing IFP-led governments in several municipalities in KZN.
“When we decided to actively participate in government, we convened cordial meetings with the leadership of the IFP and communicated our decision.
“We respect the IFP’s decision to not support the establishment of EFF governments in different municipalities in KZN, hence our logical and rational decision to vote out IFP governments wherever we previously voted for them,” he said.
Thambo said the EFF was strongly opposed to the use of violence and assassinations as a method to settle political differences.
“We as the EFF will do everything in our power and within our capacity to protect Dlamini against agent provocateurs and agents of apartheid who only thrive through violence or threats of violence,” Thambo said.
The party called on law-enforcement agencies to thoroughly investigate those behind the plot and arrest them with immediate effect.
Thambo said the SAPS must not care who is behind the assassination plots and act decisively regardless of the seniority of the plotters.
“We call on the IFP, its leaders and its members to desist from using violence as a mechanism of settling political differences. South Africa is entering an age where political parties will from time to time disagree on how governments are constituted at local, provincial and national levels, and violence cannot and should not be used as a weapon for narrow and selfish political purposes,” Thambo said.
IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa dismissed the allegation made by the EFF, saying they were going to release a detailed statement in response.
Hlabisa believes if the police are called and it is rumoured that there are people planning to kill their member, they will ask the police to make arrests rather than run to the public.
“The IFP is not desperate; we are not going to kill anyone; the EFF is not a factor. We are in government in 29 municipalities,” Hlabisa said.
He said the EFF wanted to bully his party when it was in control of many municipalities in KZN.
“The EFF made a blunder by wanting to take over uMhlathuze Municipality. We are going to write a letter to the police and urge them to immediately arrest those who they say want to kill Dlamini. If the allegation of assassination is true, why are the police not making arrests? This must be made public as the EFF went public,” Hlabisa said.
KZN police were not available for comment at this stage.
The Star