Johannesburg - A tribalistic, one-man political party that has become irrelevant in the South African political landscape and increasingly in danger of extinction as rivals eat away even its traditional strongholds.
That’s the general perception, and realities, confronting the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) today. But its caucus leader in Gauteng, Bonginkosi Dhlamini insists that this is part of malicious stereotypes about the party. He believes the IFP will weather the political storms and that it will soon revive its floundering fortunes.
“Those are perceptions created by the media and our detractors. Labelling parties in terms of ethnicity is the biggest threat that we have as a country,” Dhlamini said.
Getting agitated, he continued: “It’s dangerous because we agreed in 1994 that we should break the non-racial and ethnic barriers. Yes, the originality of parties might have that, but it has never been a cultural organisation. The IFP is here to stay.”
The IFP achieved a paltry 0.78 percent in the May election in Gauteng, which is its second biggest stronghold after its traditional base of KwaZulu-Natal. This has further highlighted the fact that the party, which was formed in 1975, has since the first democratic elections faced a stead decline. The IFP achieved 2.4 percent votes in the national election, compared to the 4.55 percent in 2009. This is a steep drop from 10.54 percent it achieved in 1994. The IFP has also suffered a declined in the municipal election, from 8.7 percent voter support in the 1995 municipal elections to 3.6 percent in 2011.
To worsen matters, the party has also been experiencing an exodus of senior leaders while membership has dwindled so much in recent years that it lost control of KwaZulu-Natal and recently, many municipalities in the province.
The Independent Electoral Commission recently announced its intentions to deregister some 21 parties that do not have representation in the legislatures.
In typical style of the party’s octogenarian leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, Dhlamini refuses to admit that the party is facing the grim prospect of extinction.
“We all agree it was a tough election, but I will say the IFP has survived and that there are many people who still believe in the party. The IFP won because we retained what we have (in the legislature). When you look at the performance, the IFP gained ground, especially in the East Rand because we consolidated what we have (there). Out of the five parties that returned to the legislature, we are one of them.”
He thinks the IFP can play the proverbial “voice of reason” in the legislature, because of the heightening tensions between the ANC and Julius Malema’s Economic Freedom Fighters.
The IFP’s apparent decline appears to have been propelled by the formation of its breakaway party, the National Freedom Party (NFP) of Zanele Magwaza-Msibi.
Dhlamini reiterated the belief that the advent of the NFP is part of the attempts to destroy the IFP.
“The attempts to destroy the IFP have always been there. You will remember the Ziba Jiyane (IFP chair who quit the IFP to form his own party after a public spat with Buthelezi) issue. At this time, those plotting against the IFP have been fortunate enough to take a high number of its members. Technically, Msibi (succeeded because she) was the deputy (president) of the IFP. Yes, we acknowledge that the damage was done.”
The decline of the party has also been blamed on its failure to reposition and modernise itself to deal with succession battles. Part of this has been because of Buthelezi continuing to cling to a leadership position, despite his old age and relatively frail disposition. Buthelezi has himself said he would be “a coward” to leave the party while it faces its current problems. Dhlamini says it is disingenuous to blame the IFP’s decline on Buthelezi.
“That’s unfair because he is still there on the insistence of IFP members. One of these members was Msibi herself. The fact of the matter is that we are dealing with a vision caster and the founder of the party and therefore the transition must be smooth. We must do so in a manner that we don’t destroy the party, but remain intact.”
Dhlamini is full of praise for Buthelezi: “He is delegating like nobody’s business. I have never seen an open leader like him. For now, as IFP leadership, we are happy and stand by him. Besides his age, he is still active leader who leads from the corridors.”
Dhlamini believes Gauteng stands a good chance to consolidate and increase its support base in Gauteng, where most of the party’s supporters in particular face problems such as housing and accompanying quandaries of lack of electricity and sanitation. Most of the party’s members appear to be concentrated in the hostels spread across the province. It is for this reason that housing and job creation were at the centre of the IFP’s manifesto for the next five years.
“The IFP, as early as the early 1990s, has never been ashamed to talk about the plight of hostel residents because they have been neglected. It (negligence) even borders on (trampling on their) human rights. The conditions there are bad for human settlement. That is why most of the hostel dwellers are IFP members because we are not ashamed to talk about their plight.”
The Gauteng provincial government has embarked on a multibillion-rand hostel eradication project that involves the demolishing of the grubby, single-sex structures into mixed residential, rental properties. The project has been dogged by problems, including criticism from some hostel dwellers, notably IFP members, who decried it as expensive and unaffordable. Political rivalry and tensions, especially between the IFP and NFP, have also stalled the relocation to new residential properties.
“If you go to Kagiso, Dube and Meadowlands, there are (housing) developments that have taken place and people have been taken in, but they (IFP members) have been left out for several years. They were taken out (of the hostels) hoping that the developments were for them, but now they are told they don’t qualify and that they must pay a certain amount,” Dhlamini said.
He said while there was political will by the provincial government to address the plight of hostel dwellers, the process was done in a bureaucratic way.
“They assume that everybody who wants to stay in hostels wants to rent. The government did a socio-economic survey a few years ago, which indicated that 70 percent of hostel residents qualified for give away RDP houses. Immediately you build these middle income, rent-to-pay flats, you are displacing 70 percent of the people who don’t qualify.”
It is for this reason, Dhlamini said, that the IFP had placed housing as among its priorities in the next five years, along with job creation, improving service delivery and halting corruption.
“We must professionalise the civil service by putting people who qualify in positions. We need to stop this rot of cadre deployment. We must also ensure that the rand circulates in the townships by supporting small businesses. To do that we must ensure that small businesses and suppliers are paid on time.”
What does Dhlamini think of the recently appointed Gauteng Premier David Makhura?
“Like any other incumbent, he has made bold promises and niceties. Let’s wait and see.”
Sunday Independent