24/08/2026
STATEMENT BY HON. CYNTHIA MBALI SHINGA, MPL
ON THE STATE OF THE NATIONAL FREEDOM PARTY, ORGANISATIONAL INSTABILITY AND THE ROAD TO THE 2026 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS
24 August 2026
Members of the Media, Members and supporters of the National Freedom Party, citizens of KwaZulu-Natal, ladies and gentlemen all —
I have taken the decision to address the members, supporters, public representatives and structures of the National Freedom Party because the continuing deterioration of our organisation can no longer be treated as an ordinary internal disagreement between leaders, nor can those of us who have been entrusted with political responsibility continue watching quietly while an organisation built through enormous sacrifice is weakened by instability, constitutional disputes, the systematic displacement of elected leaders and the absence of the coherent political direction required to take the NFP confidently into the 2026 Local Government Elections.
For several months I have deliberately exercised restraint because I have always believed that differences within a political organisation should, wherever reasonably possible, be resolved through engagement, consultation and the constitutional structures established for precisely that purpose. I have written to the national leadership, attempted engagement, extended an olive branch and repeatedly argued that whatever disagreements may exist between President Ivan Barnes, myself and other leaders, those disagreements cannot be permitted to become more important than the survival of the National Freedom Party itself.
That approach has not produced the political maturity, cooperation or organisational reset that the present crisis demands. Instead, the NFP has continued down a road characterised by removals, suspensions, expulsions, acting appointments, departures of leaders and councillors, interference with established structures and an increasingly dangerous political culture in which those who disagree with the direction being taken are treated as obstacles that must simply be removed.
The National Freedom Party is in serious political and organisational trouble, and pretending otherwise would constitute a betrayal of the members who still expect leadership from us.
THE ATTEMPT TO REMOVE ME CANNOT BE SEPARATED FROM THE WIDER CRISIS
The record must be stated accurately because there has been far too much confusion created around my own position. The national leadership does not regard me as merely suspended; it has purported to expel me from the National Freedom Party.
That purported expulsion was subsequently used as the basis for an attempt to remove me from the KwaZulu-Natal Legislature. I exercised my constitutional right to approach the courts, and the High Court proceedings of 18 June 2026 resulted in an order which, pending the determination of the internal appeal process, interdicted the Speaker from giving effect to the NFP’s attempt to remove me and suspended the relevant decision.
Such back-and-forth has not in any way strengthened the NFP and its representation but has weakened it. We have to be clear and decisive: I am the Provincial Chairperson of the NFP in KwaZulu-Natal, as elected by the people in Newcastle on 30 September 2023.
However, the future of the NFP must no longer be reduced to the question of Cynthia Mbali Shinga. The crisis has become considerably larger than one person because the same period has witnessed action against several other leaders, the displacement of established structures, departures from the organisation and an increasingly destructive internal political environment.
THE POLITICS OF REMOVAL HAS BECOME A SUBSTITUTE FOR THE POLITICS OF GROWTH
The most disturbing feature of the present leadership approach is the apparent belief that removing people constitutes rebuilding an organisation. Political organisations are not strengthened merely because leadership succeeds in consolidating authority over fewer people; they are strengthened when they recruit members, retain communities, build functioning branches, develop credible leaders, win public confidence, expand electoral support and create structures capable of carrying an election campaign.
We have watched prominent leaders, councillors and ordinary members walk away from an organisation that desperately needs every credible activist, every functioning structure and every community relationship it can retain ahead of the Local Government Elections.
The political language that appears to have developed around these departures is equally concerning. The expression “abahambe”, suggesting that those who disagree should simply leave, represents precisely the opposite of the political culture required to rebuild a declining organisation. When councillors who have won wards leave the organisation and nothing comparable is built in those communities afterwards, the Party has not renewed itself; it has surrendered political ground that somebody else will occupy.
The NFP cannot continue subtracting leaders, councillors, activists, members and structures from itself while describing the shrinking remainder as renewal. Political growth is measured by what an organisation adds to itself and by the confidence it commands among the people, rather than by the number of internal opponents it succeeds in removing. What threatens the growth and entrenchment of the NFP is leaders who are visionless and can only resolve to chasing members and in particular leaders away so they can benefit themselves from the hard labour that was endured by other leaders who have built this organisation from the ashes.
THE CONSTITUTION DOES NOT CREATE PROVINCIAL STRUCTURES AS DECORATIONS
The National Freedom Party Constitution provides a framework within which National, Provincial, District, Constituency and Branch structures are expected to function. Those structures were not established so that their authority could exist only when National agrees with the people occupying them.
Section 6.5.1.1 places upon the Provincial Executive Committee the responsibility to “assume responsibility for the effective co-ordination of the affairs of the Party at Provincial level.” The same Constitution recognises the branch as the fundamental political home through which ordinary members exercise their rights and privileges.
This constitutional structure is important because democracy inside a political party cannot mean that members are valuable only when their choices correspond with the preferences of National leadership. Members cannot be denied meaningful participation in organisational processes merely because they are perceived to support the Provincial Chairperson, Provincial Secretary or any other leader regarded as politically inconvenient.
National cannot invoke the province when documentation needs to be processed but disregard the political authority of provincial structures when substantive decisions affecting that same province are being made. The Constitution must operate consistently or it ceases to be a constitution and becomes merely a document cited selectively to justify decisions already taken.
THERE IS NO CONSTITUTIONAL BASIS FOR INVENTING POLITICAL OFFICES MERELY TO REPLACE ELECTED LEADERS
I reject the political attempt to normalise the description of individuals as an “Acting Provincial Chairperson” or to treat temporary administrative arrangements as though they automatically extinguish elected political mandates.
My position therefore remains unchanged. I was elected Provincial Chairperson of the National Freedom Party in KwaZulu-Natal, and I continue to assert that political and constitutional mandate unless and until a lawful process capable of terminating that mandate has been conclusively established.
WE ARE PREPARED TO DEFEND THE RIGHTS OF OUR MEMBERS — INCLUDING BEFORE THE COURTS
If the national leadership believes that it can approach the 2026 Local Government Elections by systematically excluding, removing or disqualifying candidates merely because those members are perceived to be politically aligned with me, with the elected KwaZulu-Natal leadership or with leaders who have challenged President Barnes, then it must understand that we are prepared to challenge those decisions through every lawful avenue available to us, including approaching the courts on an urgent basis where circumstances require it.
The candidate-selection process cannot become another instrument through which internal political battles are fought. If branches nominate candidates through the prescribed processes, if those candidates satisfy the applicable requirements and if their names are subsequently removed from lists because they are considered to be “Shinga people”, rather than for legitimate constitutional or candidate-eligibility reasons, we will demand written reasons, the resolutions relied upon and the constitutional authority under which those decisions were taken.
The same principle applies to any attempt to manipulate proportional-representation lists. An NFP member does not surrender his or her political rights merely because that member supports Cynthia Shinga, Zodwa Mtshali or any other leader with whom President Barnes or members of the national leadership disagree. If otherwise eligible members are removed, leapfrogged, excluded or prevented from participating solely because of perceived factional alignment, we are prepared to contest those decisions internally and, where the law permits and circumstances justify it, through the courts.
We did not choose confrontation as our first option. We repeatedly called for dialogue, cooperation and an organisational settlement that would allow all of us to concentrate on rebuilding the NFP and contesting the Local Government Elections. Having exhausted those efforts without achieving the necessary cooperation, nobody should now confuse our previous restraint with an inability or unwillingness to fight.
The gloves are off, but our weapons remain the NFP Constitution, the law, the courts where necessary, the democratic rights of our members and ultimately the will of the people.
THE 2026 LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS SHOULD HAVE BEEN THE CENTRE OF EVERYTHING WE WERE DOING
The greatest political failure of this entire period is that while the NFP has been consumed by internal conflict, our competitors have been organising communities, building election machinery, recruiting members, identifying candidates, strengthening communications and preparing to contest the 2026 Local Government Elections.
Administrative processes concerning candidate nominations are necessary, but candidate administration alone does not constitute an electoral strategy. A serious LGE programme must integrate branch functionality, voter registration, membership recruitment, ward analysis, community mobilisation, candidate development, communications, campaign resources and door-to-door programmes while recovering areas in which the organisation has deteriorated.
My open letter of 10 August recorded my concern that no comprehensive LGE programme had been properly shared with the provincial leadership and further warned that two voter-registration periods had already passed without the level of coordinated NFP visibility that should have accompanied them.
That letter was another attempt to prevent political disaster. An appeal to sit around a table and save an organisation heading into an election was answered with arrogance rather than political engagement.
I will not continue begging anybody to build the National Freedom Party.
KWAZULU-NATAL HAS CONTINUED WORKING DESPITE THE INTERNAL WAR
While enormous energy has been invested in removing people, those of us on the ground have continued demonstrating what political organisation should look like.
Across KwaZulu-Natal, we have continued community programmes, constituency engagements, door-to-door mobilisation, membership work and practical interventions intended to keep the NFP connected to ordinary people. The NFP was never intended to become a correspondence factory producing suspension letters faster than it produces new members. Its purpose is to serve people, organise communities and contest political power so that the conditions of those communities can be changed.
THE ERA OF SILENCE HAS ENDED
I have called for cooperation, consultation and dialogue; I have written privately and publicly, extended an olive branch and argued that the internal battles must end so that the NFP can prepare for the Local Government Elections.
Those efforts have not produced the necessary response, and I will therefore no longer participate in the pretence that endless accommodation of destructive conduct constitutes political maturity.
My responsibility as a leader is not to protect Mr Barnes from criticism. My responsibility is to protect the political organisation entrusted to all of us and to tell the truth when I believe its future is being endangered.
Mr Barnes must ultimately be judged by the political condition of the organisation under his leadership. An organisation that continually loses experienced leaders, councillors, structures and members without replacing that political capacity cannot credibly describe the process as rebuilding.
The immediate task is to restore constitutional governance throughout the organisation, recognise the proper functions of elected structures, protect the participatory rights of ordinary members and place the entire Party on a serious election footing.
KwaZulu-Natal must intensify its work rather than retreat from it. Branches must organise, constituencies must mobilise, candidates must become visible within their communities, membership recruitment must accelerate and every area in which the NFP has lost political ground must become the subject of a deliberate recovery programme.
The National Freedom Party was built through the sacrifice of Mama Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi and thousands of ordinary people who believed that they were creating a permanent political home capable of representing communities neglected by others. That inheritance cannot be reduced to the personal property of any President, Provincial Chairperson, Secretary-General, NEC or faction.
We will continue organising KwaZulu-Natal, strengthening our communities, protecting legitimate structures, preparing for the 2026 Local Government Elections and defending the democratic character of the movement that Mama VZ entrusted to those who came after her.
Our political opponents should be the parties contesting against us in communities rather than fellow NFP members who refuse to surrender their constitutional rights. The sooner the leadership understands that fundamental distinction, the greater the possibility that there will still be a National Freedom Party worth fighting for after 2026.
I thank you.
HON. CYNTHIA MBALI SHINGA, MPL
Provincial Chairperson, National Freedom Party – KwaZulu-Natal
24 August 2026
