FOR the past few days, the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) has been hogging headlines for all the wrong reasons.
There was a petition signed by 20 prominent leaders of the party that was circulating on social media, demanding an urgent National Executive Committee (NEC) meeting.
The group was calling for the NEC to convene an urgent meeting, but the agenda was not disclosed.
It was later alleged that they wanted to put a motion of no confidence against one of the party's national leaders.
The meeting was scheduled to take place on Monday, 31 July, at Empangeni Mbizo Hall, but did not see the light of day.
It's alleged that the knives were out for IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa.
But the IFP provincial chairman, Thami Ntuli, has crushed the big elephant in the room and denied that there is a plot to oust the party's president.
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He said that the rumours that they are fighting with Hlabisa are baseless because they're on different levels and there's nothing they can fight about.
"We saw the petition in the NEC meeting but we didn't confirm that the meeting will sit. We were shocked to learn in the media about the arranged meeting," said Ntuli.
Ntuli said there are no divisions in the party and maintained that they have a very good working relationship with the president of the party.
IFP national spokesman Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the NEC meeting that sat on Monday, 31 July, dismissed the petition.
"The national council is a serious body of the party that cannot be convened willy-nilly. The national council will be ordinarily convened by the president for its normal business at a date to be determined," said Hlengwa.
He said that the petitioners were further summoned to appear before the NEC on Monday, 7 August 2023.
