NFP confident party will regain support

The National Freedom Party Acting President, Jeremiah Mavundla says he is confident that the party will regain support after the upcoming local government elections. Mavundla says the NFP will not disappear from the political landscape of South Africa even after the passing of it’s founder, Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi.  

She passed away at the age of 59 early last month.  

Mavundla was speaking to the SABC News on the party’s manifesto ahead of the local government elections next week.  

Mavundla says the party is working on taking its members back from the IFP.  

The NFP is a breakaway from the IFP after being founded by the late Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi in 2011 who was a former Chairperson of the IFP.  

Now 10 years old, the party has seen a decrease in support after having gained six seats in the National Assembly after the 2014 general elections to having only two after the 2019 elections.  

In 2016, the party did not contest in the local government elections after failing to meet the IEC’s deadline to pay the registration fee that would allow it to contest.  

Mavundla says this is one of the reasons that the party lost support.  

He was speaking to the SABC in an exclusive interview ahead of the upcoming local government elections…

“No, it doesn’t worry us because some are going back and some coming back. People went to the IFP in 2016 and in 2019, we were working hard to bring those people back. Unfortunately, we did not succeed but now, as we are going to these elections, we are working more harder to take our members back.”

LGE 2021 | NFP’s Jeremiah Mavundla on the party’s manifesto and election campaign:

There are fears that the party will not survive after the passing of its founder earlier this year. KaMagwaza-Msibi died at the age of 59 from cardiac arrest.  

However, Mavundla says he is not concerned over the lifespan of the party.

“I think the party is going to survive because obviously, one of the things that was making the party was exactly the uncertainty that the members had. Now, as we have agreed, we have sat down as the leaders and we’re trying to build unity and we’re agreeing that soon after the elections we are going to convene an elective conference where the national structure would be elected.”

Mavundla says the factionalism within the party has also contributed to the party’s downfall, but says the new leadership elected after the elective conference should foster unity.

“The factionalism is not only in the NFP. If we’re following the politics of South Africa, we know most of the parties, they suffer the same sickness of the factionalism. We want to bring in the leadership that is going to create unity that is going to bring in everyone inside and we look in one direction.”

Mavundla says should the party be given the mandate to lead in municipalities, it will provide water in rural and urban areas as well as in townships. He says the party hopes to be victorious in Zululand and Uthukela District Municipalities.