The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has finally acted and fired the allegedly “underperforming” Mayor of Amajuba District Municipality, which is anchored in Newcastle in northern KwaZulu-Natal. Prince Ndabuko Zulu was shown the door on Thursday, 18 December 2024 after he met with the party’s national executive committee (NEC). The prince took over the position in December 2022 after the IFP fired the former mayor, Vuselwa Bam, who later defected and joined Team Sugar South Africa. “The IFP NEC today met…

The sole but critical councillor of the ABC (Abantu Batho Congress) in the Endumeni (Dundee) local municipality in KwaZulu-Natal has scored a temporary victory against his expulsion from the party and as a councillor. The Pietermaritzburg High Court today ruled that Mbulelo Phakathi cannot be expelled from the party and as a councillor in eNdumeni until the matter has been fully heard. Phakathi’s seat in Endumeni is crucial to the ANC, which still harbours ambitions of overthrowing the IFP through…

The chairperson of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in KwaZulu-Natal, Thami Ntuli, has downplayed the reported tensions between the MEC for CoGTA, Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi and the ANC in the government of provincial unity (GPU) and in the province. Ntuli, who is also the premier in the GPU, says it was always expected that there would be differences since they come from different political parties. The provincial IFP leader was responding to a question from the African Times during a…

The MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) in KwaZulu-Natal, Reverend Thulasizwe Buthelezi, has been temporarily stopped in his spirited bid to relocate the department’s traditional affairs division to Ulundi. The opening was billed for Thursday, 5 December 2024, but it was halted after Premier Thami Ntuli intervened. Ntuli said the halting would be until the government of provincial unity involving the IFP, ANC, DA and the National Freedom Party (NFP) is satisfied that all legal processes were followed. …

REINSTATED: KZN CoGTA Deputy Director for Fire and Rescue Services, Mncedisi Makuyi, has been reinstated to his lucrative government job. Photo: Facebook A government employee who alleged that he was dismissed by the KwaZulu-Natal Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (CoGTA) for his involvement in the Umkhonto Wesizwe Party (MKP) has been reinstated to his position. Mncedisi Makuyi, who served as Deputy Director for Fire and Rescue Services, was fired on May 15 this year following an internal disciplinary…

In public discourse, there is a tendency to incorrectly equate fundamentally dissimilar entities in nature and purpose. The governments of national unity (GNU) established in 1910, the 1990s and 2024 only share a name but are vastly different in context and outcome. Some commentators’ insistence on justifying this ‘sameness’ is intellectually dishonest and misleading.  It is akin to comparing Newcastle in Natal with Newcastle in the UK; they share a name but are distinctly separate places. In mainstream political literature,…