Thank you, Chairperson. This matter is on record in Hansard. I am not a member of the NA, but my name was mentioned and it was in the response to the state of the nation address, so there is nothing irrelevant about it. Members must keep track of what is going on in the other House. All the members of the hon member's party were listening when this matter was being discussed. [Interjections.]
Hon Buthelezi referred to a confidential meeting between the two leaders. We want to say that it is not like this discussion they had was actually convened to signal the support of the president or any of the factions within the IFP. One of the issues that has also arisen many times is the concern that Dr Buthelezi had raised about the legacy of his contribution to the liberation struggle, accusing members of the ANC of vilifying him. It would hardly have been surprising not to confidentially indicate the concern that a lot of similarly damaging attacks on hon Buthelezi were, of late, emanating from his party as a result of the contest of younger leaders. We have repeatedly indicated that the ANC has no preferences as to which faction or leader emerges victorious in the internal IFP leadership contest, and this remains the case. Seeing that all the accusations were made in the NA, I want to reiterate that we must repudiate them in this House as well, as there is no other platform to put them on record. [Applause.]
The ANC is not involved in inciting internal divisions within the IFP. We are, however, aware that whenever the leaders were seeking attention from their senior leaders, they used the ANC as a bogeyman in corridor gossip. This line seems to work every time.
Hon Buthelezi accused me, as the ANC provincial chairperson and Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, of having several meetings with Mrs kaMagwaza-Msibi. For the record, this is a lie. Those who reported to Shenge knew that they were lying to him. There have never been such meetings. There are no meetings planned and there was never any attempt to hold such meetings. It pains me when a leader we respect is told such untruths and has to make a public statement based on incorrect information. It is also clear that the informants have been doing this for a long time in incremental binges and instalments. Shenge is welcome to table evidence to the Speaker of the NA as to where the statement was made.
The IFP has accused the ANC of offering kaMagwaza-Msibi a position as an MEC in return for her joining the ANC. This is scurrilous garbage and the documents are the work of disinformation peddlers who knew that the IFP would believe them. For the record, the ANC has no knowledge of such, nor was there any such offer. The national executive committee of the ANC never gets involved in interviews of any persons in preparation for them being appointed as MECs. The author obviously has no sense of the ANC processes.
Shenge has alleged that there are further confidential documents to prove that the ANC was plotting about kaMagwaza-Msibi and proceeded to read them into parliamentary Hansard records. For the record, these are also not true. The allegations are an insult to the ANC, and if they had been made to a private person, a lawsuit would have been won in court.