DURBAN, Friday 4 September 2026 — The National Freedom Party is moving to replace eThekwini Deputy Mayor Zandile Myeni as its councillor after she left the party to lead the newly launched National People’s Ambassadors, creating a fresh leadership and coalition question in one of South Africa’s most closely watched metros two months before the local government elections.
NFP secretary-general Bheki Xaba told The Witness on Friday that Myeni could no longer remain an NFP councillor after joining the new organisation and that the party was already taking steps to replace her.
“She, and any other NFP councillor who was at that press briefing are being replaced as we speak,” Xaba said.
Myeni’s departure from the NFP was confirmed on Thursday when she publicly unveiled the National People’s Ambassadors, or NPA, in Durban.
SABC News reported that she is heading the new organisation, which says it has submitted candidates to the Electoral Commission to contest the 4 November local government elections.
Myeni remains publicly identified as eThekwini’s deputy mayor while the process of replacing her as an NFP councillor unfolds.
Official eThekwini material from the current municipal term identifies her as deputy mayor alongside ANC Mayor Cyril Xaba and Speaker Thabani Nyawose.
Her departure therefore has consequences beyond an ordinary party defection.
Myeni entered the eThekwini council as an NFP proportional-representation councillor and was elected deputy mayor in 2023 as part of the political arrangements governing the hung metropolitan council.
If her NFP council membership ends, the municipality will have to deal separately with the consequences for the deputy mayoral office in accordance with municipal legislation and council procedures.
No official eThekwini notice confirming that Myeni has yet ceased to be deputy mayor or naming a successor had been located by Friday afternoon.
That distinction is important: the NFP has announced that it is replacing her as its councillor, but the party itself does not unilaterally elect or remove the deputy mayor. That office is determined through the municipal council.
The development comes at a sensitive time for eThekwini politics.
The ANC governs the metro without an outright majority and has depended during the current term on agreements and voting arrangements involving smaller parties.
The NFP has consequently exercised influence significantly greater than its numerical representation in council.
Myeni’s departure removes one of the party’s most senior municipal office-holders while simultaneously creating another competitor for votes in KwaZulu-Natal.
The NPA says it has already submitted candidates for eThekwini as well as municipalities in Zululand, King Cetshwayo, uMkhanyakude and uThukela.
SABC reported that Myeni launched the party alongside several other disaffected NFP figures.
They included Okhahlamba Speaker Zam’landela Khumalo, uMkhanyakude District Municipality chief whip Thembinkosi Sibiya and Ulundi councillor Misizwe Gcaba.
Former Nongoma mayor Jeremiah Mavundla was also among the former NFP figures associated with Thursday’s launch, according to The Witness.
The scale of those movements gives the dispute broader significance than Myeni’s individual decision.
Xaba’s statement that other NFP councillors present at the launch are also being replaced raises the prospect of vacancies or party-list substitutions in several KwaZulu-Natal councils before November.
The precise municipal impact will depend on which office-holders formally cease to represent the NFP and how the applicable proportional-representation replacement procedures are implemented.
Myeni said the new party had been established because its founders believed municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal were failing to deliver adequately to residents.
She also criticised what she described as dictatorial leadership within her former political home.
Those are Myeni and the NPA’s political claims and do not constitute independent findings concerning the NFP or the municipalities concerned.
The NFP has itself experienced a series of internal disputes and departures ahead of the election.
Several members moved to the IFP during August, including figures from municipalities where the party had previously held considerable influence.
The emergence of another breakaway organisation increases competition for a voter base that has historically been particularly relevant in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
It also comes as eThekwini becomes one of the most consequential metropolitan contests of the November election.
The ANC lost its outright majority there in 2021, while the MK Party, IFP, DA, EFF and several smaller formations are seeking either to take control or position themselves for post-election coalition negotiations.
Recent Ipsos polling has indicated particularly strong support for the MK Party in eThekwini, although metropolitan polling carries larger margins of error and should not be interpreted as an election forecast.
The NPA’s entry further fragments that contest.
Seventy political parties are expected to contest proportional-representation seats in eThekwini, according to IEC data cited by SABC News.
The immediate question, however, concerns the current council rather than November’s result.
The NFP must implement the replacement of Myeni on its proportional-representation list, while eThekwini will need to determine the status of the deputy mayoral position should she cease to be a councillor.
Any attempt to elect a replacement deputy mayor could also require renewed negotiations among parties in the council and provide an early indication of coalition relationships heading into the election.
The next material developments will therefore be an official municipal notice on Myeni’s council status, confirmation of the NFP councillor replacing her and the scheduling of any council process to fill the deputy mayoral position.
