NFP fires ‘lazy’ co-founder Mavundla ahead of crucial motion of no confidence against KZN premier

The trouble-torn National Freedom Party (NFP) in KwaZulu-Natal has fired one of its founding members, Jeremiah Mavundla.

Mavundla, a former acting president of the party, also had his membership terminated.

Party president Ivan Barnes confirmed Mavundla was given the boot.

Barnes accused Mavundla of being inactive and failing to renew his membership despite repeated requests. Barnes told the former mayor that his time was up.

“It has been noted that you have been inactive nor have [you] responded to communication,” reads the letter sent to Mavundla.

Barnes said the party tried to reach the former leader through the national organiser in October, to no avail.

The letter informed Mavundla that he was no longer a member in good standing as he had not renewed his membership.

Mavundla was one of the key figures who broke away from the IFP with the late Zanele Magwaza-Msibi in 2011.

He helped the party win control of Nongoma in northern KZN and served as its first mayor. He also served as acting president of the NFP after Magwaza-Msibi died.

The party has been torn apart by internal fighting and the jostling for positions that comes amid a potential schism in the government of provincial unity (GPU) as the MK Party’s December 15 motion of no confidence against premier Thami Ntuli looms.

The divisions in the party were laid bare when KZN party MPL Mbali Shinga defied Barnes’s directive to support the motion against Ntuli.

Ntuli heads the GPU in the 80-member provincial legislature ultimately thanks to Shinga’s decisive vote.

While the MK Party gained 37 of the 80 seats, a united opposition blocked them from gaining control of the province.

Shinga is currently MEC for social development.

Barnes is believed to be bitter after the IFP snubbed him for the Zululand mayoral seat it had promised him in exchange for his party’s solitary vote in the provincial legislature during talks to form the GPU in KZN.

After the snub, Barnes now supports the MK Party’s motion against Ntuli.

In an unprecedented move, EFF leader Julius Malema called on his party members in the KZN legislature to back the motion against Ntuli.

Malema said the support is purely against a neo-liberal government that was formed against the wishes of the people of the province.

Mavundla didn’t respond to queries.