NFP disqualified from elections

This after failing to pay the Electoral Commission the required fees needed to participate on time.

Mosery said the IEC had not received the required payment of about R92,000 from the NFP for its candidates to contest the August 3 municipal polls in Kwazulu-Natal.

Nationally, it was not immediately known what the figure was, but would be dependent on how many municipalities the party planned to contest outside of KwaZulu-Natal.

Mosery said that a party that contested in every local municipality, district municipality and metro would have to pay R498,000.

The deadline for paying the fees was June 2.

"The NFP failed to pay during the stipulated time frame and because they miss that deadline they have been disqualified," said Mosery.

"This means that the NFP will not be part of local government after the August 3 elections results are announced," he said.

He said the party could approach the Electoral Court or even the High Court if unhappy with the IEC’s decision.

Mosery also said that 2000 candidattes had been disqualified from contesting the elections in KwaZulu-Natal.

Some had been disqualified to stand as candidates as they were not registered to vote, while others were not registered to vote in the municipalities where they were seeking election. And yet others did not even reach the required threshold of 50 signatures to enable them to be registered as candidates for the elections.

The NFP was formed in 2011, some three months before the local government elections in that year, when the former Inkatha Freedom Party chairwoman Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi left the IFP.

The party has been beset by rivalries ever since KaMagwaza-Msibi, who is also the country’s deputy science and technology minister, suffered a debilitating stroke in November 2014.