Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Tuesday said it was not true that the party's national council had decided to defer leadership elections scheduled for July.

"The national council can't take such a decision. It is the structures that can take such decisions," he said.

Buthelezi was reacting to reports that it was suggested during a national council meeting over the weekend that the conference should be non-elective.

He said that the claim was crafted by people who wanted to create unnecessary tensions in the party.

"What I can confirm is that there is going to be a meeting in Ulundi on July 10 where structures will discuss the issue of tensions in the party," he said.

The IFP's elective conference scheduled for July 23 is expected to be highly contested.

Lobbying for top IFP positions ahead of the conference has caused tensions in the party. Several IFP members have been fired for backing Zanele Magwaza-Msibi for the post of the party's president.

It was reported on Tuesday that the existing IFP leadership wanted to make the conference non-elective because it was worried that regional conferences in eThekwini, uThukela and Johannesburg had already elected leaders who appeared to be close to Magwaza-Msibi.

IFP national organiser Albert Mncwango confirmed that the elections would be held again in eThekwini and uThukela because the results had been challenged.

He said that eThekwini, uThukela and Umgungundlovu were the only regions in the country that had not held their congresses as part of the preparations for the national conference.

"The district conferences will be followed by provincial congresses," he said.

He said all branches had been renewed by February 28, and that the party was ready to hold the conference.

"The only disappointing thing now is the issue of people who want to create divisions in our party," he said.