STATEMENT BY: REV. KM ZONDI MP IFP SECRETARY-GENERAL DURBAN: 9 DECEMBER 2011

Ladies and gentlemen of the media, In the last two weeks I have come to know of reliable information of clandestine activities by some highly-placed personalities in the Party who are working in cahoots with certain elements in the media to publish fabricated stories for the purpose of blemishing my name in the public arena so that when I do eventually step down from my present positions it could be said I did so because I had no option but to bow out because of shame over scandals of a personal nature such as those that would have been published. I have also heard that the other aim is to aleniate me from both my family and my Church that once such stories have been published, they would find it too embarrassing to associate with me.

I have been told about some people in the Party who have approached certain characters in the media such as Mandla Zulu who now reports for the Zulu Edition of the Sunday Times to write such stories about me. I have also heard that certain women in the Party have been approached and put under severe pressures by these highly-placed individuals in the Party some with promises of money and promotion to better paying jobs if only they would agree to give statements to the media.

According to this information Mandla Zulu was asked to rehash even the story that was sometimes ago published by Nathi Oliphant of the Independent Newspapers about my alleged love affair with a certain colleague of mine who is married to somebody else. I was also told that Mr Zulu was asked to further spice it that, that colleague of mine is right now heavily pregnant with my child. 

The plot was to have this article published last Sunday but for some reasons it was not and it may yet be published in this coming Sunday's Zulu edition of the Sunday Times or whenever just before my stepping down.

I confronted Mandla Zulu about the story he was asked to write about me. He initially said he had only received an anonymous call to investigate these allegations about me. I asked him from Tuesday last week to also interview me as one major character in this drama in the interests of the principle of "audi alterem partem." He was very difficult to pin down but finally last Friday afternoon he interviewed me over the phone.

He said he had been made to understand that something of this nature had been published before and he asked me why I thought some people in the Party wanted these allegations published if they had even been discussed at a meeting of the National Council in the past? I said I did not know except that I suspected that as we draw closer to the elective Conference some people may be tempted to throw mud at those they think might be their competitors as they jostle for positions.

I said that I did not know why even this could be the case when it came to me as I had made it very clear to all structures of the Party that I was not interested to stand for any position at the elective Conference. He then said those of us in the leadership of the Party should teach our members to understand the game of democracy better as it was not proper for people like them in the media to be asked to do this kind of dirty work on behalf of some elements in the Party. 

Ladies and Gentlemen, I have served this Party with all my passion and zeal and I have made some significant sacrifices for it. I do not therefore think this is the manner in which I deserve to be rewarded for my loyalty to it! 

I want to warn all those people who might be involved in this sort of thing out of love I have for them as my fellow compatriots and colleagues and out of love I have for the IFP; a Party for which I have given my all for, at least, the past 32 years that I have had the privilege and honour to serve in its highest decision-making organs. My impassioned plea to them is that they should stop resorting to failed Stalinist tactics of a bygone Communist and Cold War era of tarnishing the names of your political foes using lies, fabrications and baseless stories. 

For quite some time I have known that some assassins have been hired to murder me as I was viewed as a stumbling block by those who wanted to topple the President of the IFP. Lately, I have been told that an assassin has been hired to follow me particularly in Ulundi where it is known that I am most vulnerable as I go back there most weekends to minister to my flock in my Parish.

I have also heard that the other plan is to make my attack to look like an attempted car hijacking, where I would be murdered and my car would be taken away and dumped a distance from the scene of my murder over the forth-coming Christmas holidays. I have been made to understand that these plans would be carried out if for whatever reasons the Sunday Times or any other newspaper is unable to publish the fabricated story it was commissioned to publish.

I have candidly shared with the leadership of the Party the reasons of my decision not to avail myself for any positions at the next elective Conference of the Party. I did so because I regard the Party to be my political family and I have assured them that this will be the case even after my stepping down from my present positions. It therefore comes as a surprise to me that some people are so incensed by this decision of mine that they have regarded it to be the worst betrayal of the Party of all times hence all these senseless plots to connive with some people in the media to rather assassinate my character through the media and to murder me than to let me depart in peace.

After 32 years of solidly loyal service to my Party I have simply asked for an opportunity to devote my waning energies to my family which in the hurly-burly of politics usually takes a strain. I did not regard it a sin, in my case, for a son to ask for an opportunity to spend some time with his frail mother before her eventual departure from this world.

Neither did I regard it as too much for me to ask for an opportunity to devote what is left of my life to my wife and children and to attend to the numerous afflictions besetting my deceased brothers' children which in the normal cause of things, quite frankly, I did not have enough time to do. I could not postpone attending to these challenges of life anymore. I admit these challenges and problems facing my family may not seem important to others, but for me they are real. After all, it is he who wears the shoe who knows where it pinches the most!

I understand that my intended unfortunate future departure may be painful to handle for some in the Party. I also understand many may regard it as letting them down at a time that the Party faces a daunting task of rebuilding its powerbases and regaining lost ground.

As a human being I understand these feelings, and for those who harbour them I forgive them unconditionally; but I think it would be wrong, even grossly immoral for some of my comrades to forget even the little good contribution that I have for decades made to the welfare of this Party, sometimes at great personal cost to myself, when my personal circumstances permitted me to do so.

Throughout my service to this Party in whatever position I have had the honour and privilege to occupy I have tried not to be high-minded for I have known that haughtiness is the last step before one's downfall. Even now I do not regard myself to be anything other than a lowly servant who tried to do his best. It is for these reasons that I beg members of my Party who might feel let down and especially those of my colleagues who it is alleged are part of these sinister plots to please let this unworthy servant depart in peace!

Issued by the IFP, December 9 2011

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