The IFP did not deliberately defy the court which prevented it from holding a rally near to an ANC rally in KwaZulu-Natal's Nseleni area on Sunday, the party said on Monday.

"The Inkatha Freedom Party wishes to place on record that the court ruling that ordered it not to hold its rally within 5km from the venue of the ANC's rally at Nseleni last weekend was only communicated to the local IFP leadership when their rally was already in progress, said IFP national organiser Albert Mncwango in a statement.

The court on Saturday ordered the IFP not to hold its rally within 5km of the venue of the ANC's rally.

The African National Congress asked the court to stop the IFP rally to prevent clashes between members of the two organisations.

Police confirmed on Sunday that a case of illegal gathering was being investigated. No one however was arrested in connection with the gathering and the crowd was not dispersed by the police.

"We have the deepest respect for the rule of law and we would never have contravened a court ruling if it had been brought to our attention in time to allow us to redirect our election activities elsewhere in accordance with the ruling," said Mncwango.

IFP's rebuttal

He said the IFP abided by its own election campaign schedule which was agreed on by its leadership last year and which ran "independently of the ANC's campaign activities".

"We are not privy to the ANC's campaign plans and we have no business whatsoever interfering with the ANC's election events," said Mncwango.

He called on the ANC to make use of the existing lines of communication between ANC and IFP to nurture political tolerance.

"The ANC would give a solid proof of its commitment to political tolerance if it agreed to synchronise its election activities so as to avoid holding rallies concurrently with the IFP.

"Instead, the ANC appears to prefer running to the IEC at the slightest pretext without even attempting to first communicate with the IFP," said Mncwango.

He issued the statement after the ANC on Monday called on IFP to stay away from its rallies.

"We call on the IFP to stay away from our rallies. They must stop following us around and develop their own election programme.

"As the ANC we have developed our own election programme up until the day of the election, 22 April 2009," said ANC provincial secretary Senzo Mchunu in a statement.

Sapa