The African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal has dismissed talk that it was secretly negotiating with the Inkatha Freedom Party not to strip the IFP of the premiership should the Constitutional Court judges give controversial floor-crossing legislation the nod.
It has been reported that the ANC's alleged turn-around was inspired by a need to save the coalition government from collapse and prevent any outbreak of violence in the province.
Provincial ANC leader S'bu Ndebele said he believed that such speculation was aimed at frightening people who might defect from the IFP to the ANC.
It was alleged that the ANC would not appoint its own premier even if the party succeeded in attracting sufficient defectors to oust the IFP from power in the province.
This would allow Premier Lionel Mtshali to retain his increasingly shaky position.
But Ndebele's denial of behind-the-scenes talks to keep Mtshali in office means that a Constitutional Court ruling approving the floor crossing legislation will sound a death knell for the IFP. The IFP has threatened to pull out of the coalition government.
Ndebele said talk that the ANC was cosying up to the IFP was as untrue as the allegation that it had given notice that it would pass a vote of no confidence in the IFP rule.
The ANC had received five defection applications from MPs, he said. These came from Democratic Alliance Chief Whip Belinda Scott and MP Tim Jeebodh, United Democratic Movement MP Sam Nxumalo, and IFP MPs Maurice Mackenzie and Mike Tarr.
The five apparently defected prematurely.
