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Albert Mncwango
Mangaqa Albert Mncwango (born 19 August 1953) is a South African politician from KwaZulu-Natal. He represented the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in the National Assembly for 23 years from 1994 to 2017. After that, he served as Mayor of Nongoma, his hometown, from 2017 to 2023. He is currently the deputy secretary-general of the IFP.
Mncwango was a founding member of the IFP in 1975 and first joined its Central Committee in 1980. He served as the party's national organiser from 1998 to 2012, in which capacity he was in charge of election campaigning. He was deputy chairperson of the party from 2012 until 2019, when he was elected to his current position as deputy secretary-general.
Mncwango was born on 19 August 1953. He was a founding member of Inkatha (later restyled as the IFP) in 1975 and served in its Youth Brigade. He was also regional chairperson of the party's branch in Nongoma from 1978 until 1980, when he was elected as a member of the party's Central Committee for the first time.
He was a member of the party's delegation to the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), which negotiated the end of apartheid; He was also a longtime induna of the Zulu King, Goodwill Zwelithini; when Inkatha president Mangosuthu Buthelezi boycotted CODESA to protest Zwelithini's exclusion, Mncwango suggested that he was prepared to order Zwelithini's personal regiment into "war" with the other negotiating parties.
In South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, Mncwango was elected to represent the IFP in the National Assembly. He served five-and-a-half terms in his seat: he was elected to his sixth and final term in the 2014 general election, ranked first on the IFP's regional party list for KwaZulu-Natal, and he retired on 15 June 2017, ceding his place to Xolani Ngwezi.
Mncwango was viewed as a "party loyalist", in the Mail & Guardian's phrase, or as a "firebrand", in the phrase of opposition leader Tony Leon. Among the attacks launched by Mncwango on his party's behalf was a dismissal of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its head, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as a "sensationalist circus of horrors presided over by a weeping clown". During the same parliamentary debate, held in 2003, Mncwango claimed that the leadership of the governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), had conspired to assassinate IFP president Buthelezi during apartheid.
In the late 1990s, including around the time of the 1999 general election, Mncwango's hometown of Nongoma in KwaZulu-Natal was a focal point for political violence between the IFP and governing ANC. Mncwango led the IFP in the area and stringently denied that IFP supporters were responsible for the violence or for intimidating ANC members and electoral officials; indeed, he tended to suggest that there was barely any political contest in the area, which he said was "99.99% IFP". Mncwango himself reportedly had a complement of bodyguards.
When ANC parliamentarian Bheki Mkhize was murdered in nearby Ulundi in 2000, the provincial minister for safety and security, Bheki Cele of the ANC, was highly critical of Mncwango and his attitude towards the violence, saying:
Albert Mncwango
Mangaqa Albert Mncwango (born 19 August 1953) is a South African politician from KwaZulu-Natal. He represented the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in the National Assembly for 23 years from 1994 to 2017. After that, he served as Mayor of Nongoma, his hometown, from 2017 to 2023. He is currently the deputy secretary-general of the IFP.
Mncwango was a founding member of the IFP in 1975 and first joined its Central Committee in 1980. He served as the party's national organiser from 1998 to 2012, in which capacity he was in charge of election campaigning. He was deputy chairperson of the party from 2012 until 2019, when he was elected to his current position as deputy secretary-general.
Mncwango was born on 19 August 1953. He was a founding member of Inkatha (later restyled as the IFP) in 1975 and served in its Youth Brigade. He was also regional chairperson of the party's branch in Nongoma from 1978 until 1980, when he was elected as a member of the party's Central Committee for the first time.
He was a member of the party's delegation to the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (CODESA), which negotiated the end of apartheid; He was also a longtime induna of the Zulu King, Goodwill Zwelithini; when Inkatha president Mangosuthu Buthelezi boycotted CODESA to protest Zwelithini's exclusion, Mncwango suggested that he was prepared to order Zwelithini's personal regiment into "war" with the other negotiating parties.
In South Africa's first post-apartheid elections in 1994, Mncwango was elected to represent the IFP in the National Assembly. He served five-and-a-half terms in his seat: he was elected to his sixth and final term in the 2014 general election, ranked first on the IFP's regional party list for KwaZulu-Natal, and he retired on 15 June 2017, ceding his place to Xolani Ngwezi.
Mncwango was viewed as a "party loyalist", in the Mail & Guardian's phrase, or as a "firebrand", in the phrase of opposition leader Tony Leon. Among the attacks launched by Mncwango on his party's behalf was a dismissal of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and its head, Archbishop Desmond Tutu, as a "sensationalist circus of horrors presided over by a weeping clown". During the same parliamentary debate, held in 2003, Mncwango claimed that the leadership of the governing party, the African National Congress (ANC), had conspired to assassinate IFP president Buthelezi during apartheid.
In the late 1990s, including around the time of the 1999 general election, Mncwango's hometown of Nongoma in KwaZulu-Natal was a focal point for political violence between the IFP and governing ANC. Mncwango led the IFP in the area and stringently denied that IFP supporters were responsible for the violence or for intimidating ANC members and electoral officials; indeed, he tended to suggest that there was barely any political contest in the area, which he said was "99.99% IFP". Mncwango himself reportedly had a complement of bodyguards.
When ANC parliamentarian Bheki Mkhize was murdered in nearby Ulundi in 2000, the provincial minister for safety and security, Bheki Cele of the ANC, was highly critical of Mncwango and his attitude towards the violence, saying: