The Inkatha Freedom Party and the Democratic Alliance claimed on Thursday that the ANC's defection announcement in Ethekwini was evidence of a "flagging" party.

The IFP on Thursday shrugged off claims that 40 defectors from the IFP and the DA had joined the ruling party.

"The ANC, whose fortunes in KwaZulu Natal are flagging, is desperate enough to exaggerate the credentials of a handful of defectors," said IFP Ethekwini chairperson Mduduzi Nkosi in a statement.

The DA said: "This latest stunt by the ANC simply proves that they are a party in trouble, and are willing to adopt any tactic to divert attention from their flagging electoral fortunes."

Nkosi instead accused the African National Congress of recruiting members from its own ranks.

Earlier some 40 defectors allegedly from the DA and the IFP joined the KwaZulu-Natal ANC in Durban.

The new members received a warm welcome from the party's eThekwini chairperson John Mchunu and the regional spokesperson James Nxumalo at the party's offices.

"Receiving these new members in the ANC today proves that the people of KwaZulu-Natal now see the ANC as the only party for the future," said Mchunu.

"Their joining the ANC serves to confirm that those who propagate that the ANC is going to lose its two-thirds majority and may lose KwaZulu-Natal live in a fantasy world," Mchunu said.

The ANC said the new members included former Democratic Alliance Youth co-ordinator Siyabonga Nala, IFP leader in the Umgababa area, Dingaas Msomi, and IFP councillor Richard Moulton.

Thoko Sibisi, who had been the IFP Women's Brigade chair in Umlazi, and Khayelihle Mlaba, the IFP Youth Brigade chairperson in Umlazi, also joined the ANC.

"No hope for black people"

Nala said he had joined the ANC because there was no place for black people in the DA.

"There is no hope for black people in the DA," he said.

He said out of 36 councillors in the DA, only four were black. At national level, he said there was only one black person.

"The only puppet is Joe Seremane. I am not looking back, I'm only looking forward," he told the cheering crowd.

In the DA, he said, one would never see black people in good positions.

"You will only see black people at rallies... When it comes to positions, it goes to the white people."

The DA, however, charged that Nala was not a member of its party anymore, saying his membership had lapsed a long time ago.

The party said it was "dishonest" of the ANC to present him as a defector.

Mchunu stressed that the new members had joined voluntarily as they regarded the ANC as "a vehicle for a better life for all South Africans".

He said the fact that IFP members had been joining the ANC in huge numbers was a clear rejection of the "crass IFP leadership".

Moulton, meanwhile, said he joined the ANC because there were lots of things that needed to be done, which were not being done in the IFP.

"I said to myself, it's time to do something."

Nkosi, however, said the ANC was exaggerating the credentials of a handful of defectors.

"While the IFP regrets the defection of its members, it feels equally sorry for the ANC's eThekwini office which obviously needed to inflate the defectors' credentials to attract publicity," Nkosi said.