Durban — National Freedom Party (NFP) president Ivan Barnes and his entire executive team have been dealt a heavy blow by the Pietermaritzburg High Court which clipped their political wings on Monday.
In its order, the court directed Barnes and members of his national executive committee not to dismiss or suspend any party member pending the finalisation of the application of the 12 members who had petitioned the court challenging Barnes and the NEC not to suspend or dismiss members of the party without a disciplinary hearing.
The court has also ordered parties to show cause in court on September 19 for arguments on why the order should not be be made permanent.
Barnes and his NEC were hauled to court after he (Barnes) went on the rampage threatening members mostly holding government positions with dismissal or suspension letters. One of them, who is also the first applicant, was eThekwini deputy mayor Zandile Myeni, whom Barnes wrote a letter asking her to furnish him with reasons why she should not be expelled from the party after her failure to attend the NEC meeting.
One of the applicants, Sindi Dlamini-Nkambule, who was also in court, said she was happy with the court outcome. Nkambule is also a councillor in uPhongolo Local Municipality north-east of KwaZulu-Natal. Nkambule said they were taken aback by Barnes’s action, questioning his motive for wanting to suspend or dismiss them now for things that happened in March. Nkambule said Barnes called them to a special party meeting on March 22 which they could not attend because they were in a council meeting.
“We do not know what his motives are for doing this. It is even worse in my case with my fellow councillor Lindani Sibiya. We wrote to him and asked to be excused from the meeting because we were already in the council’s strategic meeting when we received invitations. Our council meeting had started from March 18 to March 23, so we were already there when we received invitations. On top of that we wrote letters of apology which were noted and accepted, so we were surprised to receive threats of suspension and disciplinary action for that March meeting,” said Nkambule.
The order means temporarily there is no leadership in the NFP since the court did not say who should take a decision in between now and the finalisation of the case. The order was also a relief to the party’s secretary-general, Teddy Thwala, whom Barnes had also suspended.
Reacting to the order, Thwala said he is vindicated because he has been always saying that there is no clause in the party constitution that grants powers to the president and the NEC to dismiss or suspend any member of the party.
Attempts to reach Barnes were unsuccessful, but his comment will be added once received.
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Daily News