Durban - Thousands of IFP supporters converged on Durban's King Zwelithini Stadium ahead of the launch of the party's 2014 election manifesto on Sunday.
Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi received a rapturous welcome when he entered the stadium in Umlazi.
Streets outside the stadium were filled with buses and taxis bearing Inkatha Freedom Party colours and Buthelezi's portrait.
When Buthelezi arrived he had to be helped up the stairs to the stage.
IFP spokeswoman Liezl van der Merwe said he had injured himself last week as he left his offices in Cape Town.
“Prince Buthelezi missed a step in the parliamentary buildings and slipped. It was discovered the following day, when he returned to Durban, that he had sustained a knee injury,” she said.
Buthelezi had ruptured his quadriceps tendon, the connective tissue that binds the muscles of the thigh to the kneecap, said Van der Merwe. - Sapa