Johannesburg - Disabled groups are livid over a suggestion by IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi that MP Gavin Woods would have long been fired if he were not disabled, The Natal Witness website reported on Monday.

"I am absolutely shocked. I find it quite, quite unbelievable," said Ari Seirlis, national director of the QuadPara Association of SA (Qasa).

Other representatives of disabled people also criticised Buthelezi's reported statement.

The Witness said the Inkatha Freedom Party leader made the remark in a letter to Weekend Witness.

Buthelezi suggested Woods only remained in Parliament as the IFP's "token" physically challenged member.

Woods suffered from the effects of polio. Later, after a fall down a flight of stairs in Parliament's precincts, he had to have a leg amputated.

He has been a prominent MP since 1994, and is former chairman of Parliament's Standing Committee on Public Accounts (Scopa).

Buthelezi's letter came after reports on a highly critical internal discussion document prepared by Woods that said the IFP was in a downward spiral.

The document described the IFP as having "no vision, no mission or philosophical base, no clear national ambitions or direction and no articulated ideological basis".

In his letter, Buthelezi said he respected Woods' views but felt the MP had "mis-assessed the situation in the party".

He said Woods had stopped attending National Council meetings or annual conferences of the IFP some years ago.

"Were Dr Woods not physically challenged, his membership of the Parliament should have been ended up by the party long ago, for he participates in no other activity of the party apart from Parliament," Buthelezi wrote.

Seirlis, a quadriplegic himself, described the letter as an insult to the disabled.

"Buthelezi must apologise to the disability sector as a whole," he said.

The report by Woods on the IFP gained prominence after the suspension of IFP national chairman Dr Ziba Jiyane for criticising the party leadership.

Jiyane has since resigned, and launched a new political party on Saturday.

Last week, in a statement issued by the IFP in his name, Woods said his document was wrongly interpreted.

Media reports cherry-picked the observations made in his paper to blame Buthelezi for the party's problems, he said.

Seirlis said it appeared from Buthelezi's letter that Woods was regarded as a mere token disability representative for the IFP.

"Secondly, the letter implies that Dr Woods' disability has impacted on his performance as an MP and that the party is adopting a grace and mercy approach to Dr Woods because of his disability."

With acknowledgements to Sapa and News24.