Employees of the Inkatha Freedom Party-administered iNkosi Langalibalele Municipality have been instructed to wear black in honour of the late Mangosuthu Buthelezi on Thursday - but the workers' representatives say the instruction is problematic.

Buthelezi, the lifelong president of the IFP, died on Saturday.

Writing in a note to five senior managers on Monday, municipal manager Sthembiso Mthembu told officials that the IFP-led municipality "will observe Thursday as a day of bereavement". 

"In lieu of this, all employees (male and female) must use black clothing. Kindly inform all your employees in your departments," he said in the note.

Mthembu missed several phone calls and did not respond to the following questions from News24: whether there were considerations for workers' safety in relation to staff who essentially have to wear personal protective clothing; whether law enforcement personnel also have to wear black; and whether those who defy the instruction would be targeted. 

SA Municipal Workers Union regional chairperson Thobani Mkhize said, "This instruction of black... our workers have concerns that a thing of this nature cannot be instructive. It has to be optional because first of all there are people who work in departments where they wear clothes that are prescribed by regulations - your electricity, traffic departments or technical services.

"For us, it doesn't make perfect sense for workers to switch from personal protective equipment. The instruction [also] tends to take away people's beliefs, there are many denominations in the municipality and there are people who don't believe in mourning; nor do they believe in mourning [this] particular individual," he added.

"Remember in the municipality, not everyone is a Zulu. This one is somehow dedicated to Shenge because he is a prime minister of the royal house. Not everyone in the municipality will find comfort with [Mthembu's] instruction."

Mkhize said the municipality didn't have a "black allowance" that would enabled workers to buy the clothes. He said he was concerned that those who didn't have black clothes may be victimised. 

He added that workers who did not have black clothes should not "bother" buying them. 

Mkhize described the instruction as an overreach.

Asked whether they had asked for a meeting, Mkhize said: "The municipal manager isn't answering his phone. He should've given us a courtesy to say this is what he was planning to do."

Meanwhile, the African National Congress (ANC) in the provincial legislature has asked its staff members to back off on posting "negatively" about Buthelezi.

Several people had taken to social media to highlight their experiences during the ANC-IFP civil war in the 1990s, where more than 20 000 people died.

However, in a note, titled "posting negatively against the late chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi", Zenzele Msomi from the ANC chief whip James Nxumalo's office implored his colleagues to refrain from posting critical messages about Buthelezi.

"We have been requested by Cde [comrade] chief whip and the provincial leadership to refrain from posting negative comments against the late chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi as it will result in tension between the IFP and the ANC."

He asked that the messages be removed with immediate effect.

Approached for comment, Msomi said he was on the road and would not comment in any case.