Impeachment bid futile, says IFP

IFP leader inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi i at the Rotary Stadium KwaMashu.PICTURE PATRICK MTOLO

IFP leader inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi i at the Rotary Stadium KwaMashu.PICTURE PATRICK MTOLO

Published Mar 24, 2014

Share

Durban - IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi is not going to add his voice to those calling for President Jacob Zuma’s impeachment following Public Protector Thuli Madonsela’s report on Nkandla.

Buthelezi said calling for Zuma’s impeachment would be futile, as it would be unsuccessful.

Talking to the media at the KwaMashu hostel on Sunday, Buthelezi said he understood what motivated the DA’s call for the president to step down.

“It won’t succeed, but it is a good idea,” said Buthelezi.

He said he could not comment further, as the IFP’s national council would only discuss the Nkandla saga on Monday.

Buthelezi was welcomed by a crowd of supporters, many of them carrying traditional weapons, at KwaMashu’s Rotary Stadium, where he campaigned for the IFP in preparation for the by-elections taking place on Wednesday.

The by-elections follow the resignation of IFP councillor Sakhi Ngcamu last year.

The party forced him to step down four months after being elected because of allegations he was involved in crime, including a murder in Melmoth in Zululand. It was the only IFP ward in the eThekwini Municipality.

Buthelezi called for peace at the hostel, which had been classified as violence hot spot.

“I call on you to channel all your tension, all your anxiety and anger and frustration, into mobilising for positive change in KwaMashu,” he said.

The IFP’s by-election candidate, Bonga Zondo, said hostel dwellers should vote to prevent the ANC from taking over and transforming the hostel into family units.

“They (the ANC) want you to vote for them so that they can destroy the hostel. When we arrived here (in Durban) to search for employment, we settled here for free, which made it easy for us to look for jobs.

“If they change it (to family units), it would not be easy for others, who come from rural areas, to do the same. This hostel is our future.

 

Zondo is up against the ANC’s Meshack Khwela and the NFP’s Qedusizi Buthelezi.

The Mercury

Related Topics: