Durban - The IFP in KwaZulu-Natal has started campaigning for the 2021 local government elections by introducing its South African Democratic Students Movement (Sadesmo), which is currently only limited to tertiary institutions, to high schools.
The party’s provincial chairperson Thami Ntuli said the party had during its provincial council’s ordinary meeting held in Melmoth, Zululand, resolved to not tolerate laziness among its councillors as it wanted to achieve a clean audit in all municipalities before the elections.
Talking to Independent Media on Monday, Ntuli said Sadesmo had been identified as the vehicle to galvanise young people to vote for the party, which during the general elections this year unseated the DA as the province’s official opposition. He said the IFP Youth Brigade had been mandated to assist in launching Sadesmo at all high schools.
“Since youth is the future, it is important for the IFP to educate youth about IFP and South African politics so that they make informed choices about the IFP.
“That is why we took a resolution to introduce Sadesmo even in high schools,” said Ntuli.
He said young people constitute more than 50% of the IFP membership but the party believes that high school pupils were not being mobilised.
“We have to educate them about IFP and Sadesmo therefore we are encouraging branch level, district and provincial structures to work with the youth brigade to introduce Sadesmo at high school level,” he said.
He said although he did not know how many student representative councils Sadesmo was leading, Ntuli said the student body played a pivotal role at most tertiary institutions.
He said the IFP had resolved that all its municipalities achieve clean audits ahead of the local government elections to boost voter confidence.
Of the 13 municipalities under the IFP, three were governed through coalitions. Ntuli said the IFP was ahead of the ANC in expelling poor performing councillors.
“In Endumeni Municipality we were the first to remove the mayor (Richard Mbatha),” he said. Mbatha was among councillors who were arrested last year in connection with plotting to kill IFP speaker Bongiwe Mbatha-Makhathini.
“We took this decision even if it means we may jeopardise our chance of continuing to lead in Endumeni,” he said.
He said the IFP has also acted against the executive of Mtubatuba Municipality. He said the IFP’s political oversight committee was still dealing with challenges facing some of its municipalities.