By Sihle Mavuso
Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) president Velenkosini Hlabisa says the party will rely on its incumbent mayors in several KwaZulu-Natal municipalities as it campaigns for the November 4 local government elections, adding that continuity is needed where the party believes its leaders have delivered.
Hlabisa made the remarks in Eshowe, northern KZN, on Sunday, where the party hosted a district rally in preparation for the elections.
He told supporters that the real battle for the elections would begin during the national voter registration weekend, when parties are expected to intensify efforts to get new voters onto the voters’ roll and ensure registered voters are correctly captured.
Hlabisa urged IFP volunteers to encourage first-time voters to register and said those affected by changes to ward or voting district boundaries should check that they are correctly registered.
He dubbed November 4 “Inkatha’s day”.
“Start with your families by ensuring that everyone who is eligible to vote and anyone who would have turned 18 by November 4, gets to vote. We are preparing for Inkatha’s day… After we have mobilised our families, we must then turn to our neighbours,” he said.
Hlabisa said the IFP would prioritise continuity by retaining experienced leaders where possible.
“It will be a continuation of leadership; we don’t want newcomers who are still playing a game of finder-finder; we want seasoned people who know where they have left off before. These seasoned people are now using the remaining four months before the elections to wrap up their work of the past five years. But it does not end there; they are now preparing that after the elections another five years will begin and they have to demonstrate how they will take the people of Nkandla, Umlalazi, Mthonjaneni, City of Umhlathuze… the women who are a majority here, forward,” Hlabisa said.
The IFP is one of the dominant municipal players in KwaZulu-Natal. It is in full control of 19 municipalities, including district municipalities, and co-governs seven others in the province.
In some municipalities, the party governs outright, while in others it has relied on cooperation arrangements with other parties, including the DA and smaller parties, depending on local council arithmetic.
The party is also pushing to consolidate its gains in Nongoma Local Municipality, a politically sensitive area because of its link to the Zulu monarchy and the IFP’s traditional support base.
The IFP lost ground in Nongoma after former national chairperson Zanele KaMagwaza-Msibi broke away in 2011 and formed the National Freedom Party. The municipality became one of the areas where the IFP and NFP repeatedly battled for control.
However, the IFP recently regained an outright majority in Nongoma after winning key by-elections in March. The party said at the time that it held 23 of the 45 seats in the council, placing it back in control of the municipality.
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Turning to internal party matters, Hlabisa said that after the voter registration weekend, party structures should begin convening conferences to elect district leaders.
He urged leaders overseeing those elective conferences to act with honesty and transparency, and to put unity and the image of the party first.
“If you are not honest and transparent during this process, you would have shot yourself in the foot. If districts are properly elected, they would become the engine of running the election machinery of the party. It will also mean that all the candidates who would run for the local government elections in the KCD (King Cetshwayo District) would triumph and run the municipalities again.”
