IFP labelled a 'monster'

"My dismissal was politically motivated"

CHRIS Ntuli, expelled president of Sadesmo, an Inkatha Freedom Party student wing, has described the IFP as a monster.

Ntuli, who was first expelled as a party employee in September last year for calling for change in the party leadership, had his membership cancelled on Friday after he called the party a "big undemocratic monster".

Ntuli revealed explosive details about the modus operandi of the IFP leadership when he addressed an IFP national council meeting on Friday.

Ntuli said the IFP had misled the public last year when it said he was fired due to financial misconduct.

"I have enough evidence that my dismissal was politically motivated," he said.

"I became stressed for about two weeks after I found out that (IFP leader Mangosuthu) Buthelezi gave his blessings to my sacking."

Ntuli worked as an IFP assistant administrative secretary before joining the leadership development institute in 2010.

He held this position until he was fired in September last year after he called for change in the leadership of the party.

On Friday he was invited as a party member to address a national council meeting in Durban, where he spit fire.

He said when he served in Sadesmo he was hopeful that the IFP would challenge the ANC and take over the government.

"I was motivated by the support we got from many young people from all walks of life. We started to win over some student representative councils across the universities," Ntuli said.

"Young people started to believe in the IFP, but now the party has become a very big undemocratic monster that is no longer a home to young democrats."

He said the problem facing the IFP was that it took long to change the leadership of the party and that the party was led by a "cabal of less than six people known as the core group".

"Time for change has come in the party. It is a huge human indignity and irresponsible of the national leadership of the party to undermine the membership of the party as evinced on the so-called IFP road map for smooth transition document."

Yesterday Ntuli said he did not regret calling for change in the leadership and said the call was influenced by a phrase he saw in the Constitution, which says: "We believe in the right and duty of any new generation to move the world forward in developing new ideas and challenging past social conventions, dogmas and superstitions."

He said he felt a challenge to make a small contribution to "saving the party that is waning".

"I did that knowing very well that there is a small group of people who are very comfortable with the status quo," Ntuli said.

"I did it knowing that it is not easy to just hand over power voluntarily. I expected a fight from those who are benefiting from the destruction of the party and used my God-given talent of influencing other people for a common cause.

"I noticed that many young people are scattered like sheep without a shepherd. I felt that it was my responsibility as a leader to shape their thinking, to provoke their minds and to unite them to stand up, to cry and say to the party, it is enough."