NFP PEC throws Mbali Shinga under the bus

The KwaZulu-Natal NFP’s provincial executive committee has turned against its own embattled chairperson, Mbali Shinga, as she fights to keep her seat and MEC’s position.

Shinga, who is also Social Development MEC under the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU), has been banking on her PEC support, arguing that the seat she occupies in the legislature belongs to it, not to Ivan Barnes’s national executive committee. 

However, on her first day of disciplinary hearing on Wednesday, the national executive committee (NEC) announced that its first witness would be the Deputy provincial secretary Zethembe Ngobese.

Shinga came to the hearing flanked by her new legal team, which included the instructing attorney and the advocate. Her team asked for an adjournment until next Thursday to familiarise themselves with the case; however, the NEC’s legal team objected, arguing that there is no reason for such a long adjournment since Shinga’s team would be provided with all the information it needed urgently.

The matter stood down and will resume on Thursday, with Shinga’s deputy provincial secretary testifying against her.

Shinga is currently facing charges of gross misconduct, specifically for insubordination and openly defying party directives. These charges stem from her refusal to support the party's instruction to vote for the uMkhonto weSizwe Party's motion of no confidence against Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli.

Although Ngobese refused to discuss his testimony before taking the stand, he, however, confirmed that the PEC Shinga chair is not happy with her behaviour.

Ngobese stated that in terms of the PEC’s resolutions, which were taken soon after her swearing in as Social Development MEC, she was to present monthly reports to the PEC about her work, which never happened.

Another resolution was that the PEC would meet every month, and in her capacity as the chairperson, she was supposed to call those meetings, which also never happened.

"We never received a single report since she became MEC. The PEC held fewer than 10 meetings, and no one explained to us why we were not meeting, so since she became MEC, she also behaved like a free agent."

Ngobese further revealed that after the NEC took a resolution to pull out from the PGU, Shinga was asked to convene the PEC meeting to discuss the NEC decision, but she refused to call a meeting.

Shinga did not respond to the questions sent to her about the PEC’s claims.

On December 15, Shinga openly defied the party’s directive to vote for Ntuli’s removal. This angered the party's bosses, including President Barnes, who watched the proceedings from the chamber’s gallery.

This prompted the party’s NEC to hold a special meeting, which resolved to suspend her.

The NEC then wrote to Speaker Nontembeko Boyce and asked her to remove Shinga as a member of the legislature.

However, the Speaker turned down the request and cited rules that Shinga could only be removed once she had ceased to be a member of the party, and not if she was suspended.

The GPU’s future hinges on the NFP, so if the party succeeds in removing Shinga, it will collapse since all sides will have a 40-40 split in the number of seats in the legislature.

willem.phungula@inl.co.za