NFP KZN leadership brands Mbali Shinga an ‘attention seeker’ after court threat

KwaZulu-Natal’s National Freedom Party (NFP) leadership has hit back at the party’s provincial chairperson, Mbali Shinga, after she warned she would use the courts to defend members’ rights amid an internal power struggle ahead of the local government elections.

Standoff escalates as Shinga pledges legal action

According to IOL, Mbali Shinga told the media she had exhausted dialogue and was prepared to take “every lawful avenue” to defend what she described as the constitutional rights of NFP members and elected structures.

“The gloves are off, but our weapons remain the NFP Constitution, the law, the courts where necessary, the democratic rights of our members and ultimately the will of the people.”

Shinga said she would defend “legitimate branch nominations, properly constituted candidate processes and members who are targeted not because they violated the rules, but because somebody has decided that their political association makes them undesirable,” IOL reported.

Background to the dispute

According to IOL, the conflict concerns Shinga’s membership, political positions and her representation in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature. The national leadership purported to expel her and sought her removal from the legislature.

IOL reports that Shinga said she approached the courts and that a High Court order on 18 June interdicted the Speaker from implementing the party’s attempt to remove her pending the outcome of internal appeals. Shinga said the party initially acknowledged that order and indicated she would have an opportunity to appeal to the National Working Committee (NWC), but later informed her that the NWC had upheld her expulsion and wrote to the Speaker seeking her removal and the deployment of Ivan Barnes in her place.

Claims and counterclaims

Shinga maintained she remains the NFP’s provincial chairperson in KwaZulu-Natal, saying she was elected in Newcastle on 30 September 2023.

“I am the Provincial Chairperson of the NFP in KwaZulu-Natal, as elected by the people in Newcastle on 30 September 2023,”

She told IOL the dispute had widened beyond her and was affecting the organisation, and warned against excluding candidates from election lists on the basis that they are seen as “Shinga people,” saying she would challenge such decisions internally and, if necessary, in court.

NFP provincial leadership response

According to IOL, the NFP’s KwaZulu-Natal leadership described Shinga’s conduct as “childish” and labelled her an “attention seeker.” The party said she had been expelled as the KZN chairperson.

“It seem(s) the lady is an attention seeker of note whose shady antics are attempts to portray her as a principled individual,” said NFP Acting Provincial Secretary Zithembe Ngobese, IOL reported.

Ngobese told IOL that Shinga had never been compliant since her election in 2023 and accused her of destroying the PEC of KZN through factional behaviour. He said the KZN PEC had no knowledge of Shinga’s media briefing and that nothing she said represented the party or its “ground forces.”

Ngobese also accused Shinga of undermining party rules and described her as a “rogue individual”. He cited an episode in which she allegedly negotiated for the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature deputy speaker position without party involvement and said the deployment committee had not mandated her to do so. IOL reported that the party later negotiated for the Social Development Department, to which Shinga was sworn in in 2024.

Organisation and elections

Ngobese told IOL there was no “crisis” in the NFP and that preparations for the 4 November local government elections were continuing, with the party planning to contest in all KZN districts.

Shinga, however, accused the national leadership of weakening the party through suspensions, removals and expulsions. According to IOL, she pointed to the suspension of Zodwa Mtshali and the removal of Thuba Thwala, Bawinile Mhlongo and Sibusiso Mkhabela as examples, and said the party’s focus on removing people was damaging organisational rebuilding and distracting from election preparations.

What this means going forward

According to IOL, the dispute remains unresolved and includes legal action, internal appeals and competing claims over party authority in KwaZulu-Natal as the NFP approaches the local government elections.