NFP PEC piles more woes on under fire chair Shinga

THE KwaZulu-Natal National Freedom Party’s (NFP) provincial executive committee (PEC) has added more woes to its own embattled chairperson, Mbali Shinga in her fights to keep her seat and MEC 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 the national executive committee (NEC) led by Ivan Barnes. 

However, on the first day of her disciplinary hearing, the NEC announced that its first witness would be the Deputy provincial secretary Zethembe Ngobese.

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

Ngobese said Shinga was to present monthly reports to the PEC about her works as per PEC resolutions, which were taken soon after her swearing in as Social Development MEC, but this  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 Provincial Government of Unity (PGU), Shinga was asked to convene the PEC meeting to discuss the NEC decision, but she refused to call a meeting.

Shinga is being hauled before a disciplinary hearing over 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. 

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.

Shinga’s team has 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 today, with Shinga’s deputy provincial secretary testifying against her.

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

Cape Times