[9] 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".
[10] 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.
[10] 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.
[13] In the aftermath of the 2004 general election, media reported that Mncwango had been convicted on a charge of rape in September 2003.
[17] The IFP announced that it had suspended him from all his positions, despite its "greatest appreciation for the sterling work of Mr Mncwango and his unquestioned loyalty to the party".
[18] Mncwango served 19 days in prison before his lawyers succeeded in petitioning the judge president to grant him leave to appeal.
[19] Mncwango alleged that the rape complaint could have been "a political setup" aimed at weakening the IFP's popularity in Nongoma; he claimed that the complainant was a member of the ANC and pointed out that he had been arrested shortly before the 2000 local elections.
[19] In 1998, IFP president Buthelezi appointed Mncwango as the party's national organiser, an office which he went on to hold for over a decade.
[21] In response, the IFP said that Mncwango had unfortunately "jumped the gun": although the party leadership was considering professionalising the position of national organiser, the final decision had not yet been taken.
[25] Indeed, since 2007 or earlier, Mncwango – along with Musa Zondi and Zanele Magwaza-Msibi – had been viewed as a leading contender to succeed Buthelezi as IFP president.
Although no longer bearing the title of national organiser, Mcwango led the IFP's campaign machinery during the 2014 general election.
During that time, in August 2019, he was elected as deputy secretary-general of the IFP at the party's 35th national general conference.
[32] Although Mncwango was re-elected as mayor in the 2021 local elections, it lost its majority in the municipality and henceforth governed through a fragile coalition with the Economic Freedom Fighters (EFF).
After one false start – in which a council meeting was stormed by IFP supporters and had to be cancelled – Mncwango was removed from the mayoral office in February 2023.
Mncwango, who was national organiser at the time, strongly denied the claim, saying that it was false, an "early April Fool's joke", and "wishful thinking" on the NFP's part.