Thwala cannot be suspended or disciplined until an earlier court challenge to the December 2023 conference outcome has been completed
The Pietermaritzburg high court has granted an interim interdict preventing National Freedom Party (NFP) president Ivan Barnes from suspending or firing its secretary general Teddy Thwala.
The court has also extended an earlier interdict in a separate application brought by 13 senior members of the NFP — including eThekwini deputy mayor Zandile Myeni — against Barnes for issuing them with notices of suspension.
The interdicts are a double blow to Barnes and his faction in the NFP, which has been wracked by internal power struggles since the death of its founding president Zanele Magwaza-Msibi in 2021.
The election of both Thwala and Barnes at a conference held in December 2023 as a precondition imposed by the Electoral Commission of South Africa for its participation in the 29 May general elections is subject to a separate court challenge.
As a result of last week’s rulings, there can be no further attempt to remove Thwala until that matter — and any appeal that might follow — is heard by the court on 25 January next year.
In the Thwala matter, acting judge Murray Pitman issued an interim order stopping Barnes and the NFP national working committee from suspending him — or from pursuing any disciplinary action against him — pending the outcome of the challenge to the validity of the December conference at which the two were elected.
Thwala had been suspended for allegedly failing to attend a meeting of the committee and for causing “chaos” within the party, with Barnes accusing him of attempting to sabotage its participation in the May elections.
He in turn accused Barnes of deliberately holding national working committee meetings without inviting him and other members in order to manipulate processes to remove them unlawfully.
Pitman also granted an interim order requested by Thwala to interdict SLK Attorneys, who had represented the NFP In the matter, from continuing to do so.
Thwala had asked the court to intervene on the grounds that the firm had previously represented him in several cases linked to the internal battles in the NFP since 2018 and has also requested that the firm be reported to the Legal Practice Council for what he described as “unlawful” conduct.
In a separate hearing, the court also extended an earlier interdict secured against Barnes and the NFP national working committee by a group of party leaders and councillors who had been suspended by the party leader days before the 29 May elections took place.
The parties have been given until the end of October to submit their heads of argument, after which it will be placed on the opposed roll by the court.
The NFP, which was formed in 2011 when Magwaza-Msibi and her followers broke away from the Inkatha Freedom Party, has maintained a presence in KwaZulu-Natal at provincial and municipal government level since.
However infighting has plagued the NFP since her death and it was reduced to a single seat in the KwaZulu-Natal provincial legislature after the 29 may elections.
It holds the balance of power in the legislature and gives the government of provincial unity, led by the IFP’s Thami Ntuli, a narrow — and fragile — majority over the uMkhonto weSizwe party-led opposition in the province.