Buthelezi’s personal assistant, Thamsanqa Duma, said yesterday Buthelezi had not received 20 cattle from the province’s agriculture department, as the department had claimed last week.

Buthelezi had been approached by department officials to accept the herd, but he had refused the offer and had also refused to write a letter applying for the cattle, Duma said.

This follows a similar denial by IFP caucus leader in the provincial legislature Lionel Mtshali, who said: “I would not have fallen into the trap of accepting favours from a government department.”

A statement released by the agriculture and environmental affairs department claimed last week that Mtshali had received 30 head of cattle.

Source: businessday.co.za