Mbali Shinga is challenging her expulsion from the party.
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Expelled KwaZulu-Natal NFP provincial chairperson Mbali Shinga will appeal the decision, her legal team confirmed on Monday.
On Sunday, Shinga who is also Social Development MEC in the Government of Provincial Unity (GPU), was fired by her party after she was found guilty on charges of misconduct and gross insubordination emanating from her defiance of the party’s directive to support the Umkhonto weSizwe (MKP) sponsored motion of no confidence against Premier Thamsanqa Ntuli last year.
On Monday, Shinga’s attorney, Sithembiso Mbhele confirmed the appeal, saying his firm would be filling papers and submitting them to the chairperson of the hearing soon. He said they were given five days to lodge an appeal.
“Indeed will be filing papers to appeal the ruling by the chairperson of the hearing. Should the appeal be unsuccessful, the next cause of action is to escalate the matter to the court for judicial review of her expulsion from the party,” said Mbhele.
In a statement issued on Sunday, the party said the national executive committee (NEC) met on the same day and discussed the findings of the disciplinary committee which recommended Shinga's expulsion. The party’s acting Secretary-General Sunset Xaba said after the NEC 'considered the gravity of the charges, the absence of mitigation and the constitutional imperatives to safeguard the organisation’s integrity, it decided to expel Shinga with immediate effect'.
On December 15, the party instructed Shinga as its sole representative in the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature to support the MKP motion with the intention of establishing a new coalition with the MKP.
Before directing her to help oust Ntuli, the NFP had formally withdrawn from the KZN GPU, citing the IFP reneging from an agreement to hand over at least a municipality to the NFP. The IFP denied that such an agreement existed.
However Shinga openly defied the instruction. She defended her defiance saying there was no consultation with her provincial executive committee which she chairs, about switching sides therefore she stuck to the arrangement she knew. The GPU is made up of a coalition of the ANC, DA, IFP and NFP.
However, the NFP characterised her action as gross insubordination and said the decision to expel her underscored that 'discipline is non-negotiable, and accountability that applies equally to all members, regardless of position or office'.
Shinga’s argument has been that the NFP's NEC does not have authority to charge or remove her from the government in terms of the party’s own constitution, which dictates that a member must be charged by his or her branch.
She also argued that the seat she occupied in the legislature belonged to the province and not to the NFP's NEC, therefore it was the onus of the provincial executive committee to recall her.
In July last year, Shinga successfully prevented the party’s national leadership from disciplining her by going to court to challenge its authority. She had been charged for refusing to submit an amended party Legislature list which would have removed her from her seat. In the letter of charges, the national leadership said Shinga failed to heed the party’s directive to submit a revised list of members to Speaker of the KZN legislature, Nontembeko Boyce.
In the revised list, the party had removed Shinga as the number one candidate and replaced her with the party's president Ivan Barnes. After the submission, Shinga was expected to resign and make way for Barnes, however, she stated that she would neither resign nor be removed by the party’s president and his national executive committee.
She said the decision to remove her from the legislature could not be taken by Barnes or his national executive committee but had to be a decision of the party’s provincial executive committee (PEC), of which she is a chairperson. The court agreed with her and set aside the impending disciplinary on the basis that the NEC had no authority to discipline her. Shinga is expected to advance the same argument if the matter again goes to court.
willem.phungula@inl.co.za