Durban - IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi has called on voters to remove from state power those who liberated them - but later became corrupt and looted state resources.
The elderly statesman, who recently announced he would not be returning to Parliament, although he would remain the face of the party’s campaign, was delivering his party’s election manifesto at the Chatsworth Stadium in the south of Durban on Sunday.
During the event he announced the party’s general-secretary, Velenkosini Hlabisa, as the party’s premier candidate for KwaZulu-Natal.
He said instead of being given more power, high-profile government leaders should be jailed for looting the state.
“We should be getting that apology. Instead, it’s business as usual, while the Zondo commission brings us one revelation after the next of deeply entrenched corruption,” he said.
Buthelezi earlier told Independent Media that the IFP could only be prevented through corruption from taking back the province it once governed after 1994’s first democratic elections.
“It is obvious that they have a lot of money to do this, if you see what is coming out of the Zondo commission, Public Investment Corporation, Bosasa. You can see where they get all the money to do all these shenanigans,” he said.
He told supporters, who listened to his almost two-hour long speech, despite heavy rain, that when the IFP was in power its administration was never “once” caught in corruption.
“None of our MECs were ever accused of corruption, not a single one of our premiers was ever tarnished by any accusation of corruption.
“But look at what is happening now,” he said.