Nothing ‘unhealthy’ about Buthelezi leading us for 44 years – IFP’s Hlengwa

Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) youth leader Mkhuleko Hlengwa was a guest on Eusebius McKaiser’s show on 702 on Monday morning, telling him that he does not think the fact that Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi has led the party since 1975 is “unhealthy”.

“So this guy has been a leader since 1975. In a country like ours is it healthy for someone to have been a leader since 1975?” McKaiser asked.

“We certainly don’t think it is unhealthy, he has done well, and he has kept the party together,” was Hlengwa’s response.

He added that the party planned to complete the transition to a new leader at its next national elective conference in July.

Hlengwa added that the party had been transparent about why Buthulezi still led it.

“We are on public record citing the reasons why Buthelezi didn’t step down. We had bogus branches ahead of the conference and we had to audit those, and we have successfully done that,” he said.

Various callers echoed McKaiser’s concerns about the length of time Buthelezi had remained IFP leader.

READ MORE: IFP campaigners ‘assaulted’ by ANC supporters in North West

In response, Hlengwa brought up the elective conference again and said Buthelezi would have held this conference already if this was possible.

Hlengwa also denied that the IFP was a “Zulu party”, saying “we have never branded ourselves as such”.

He brought up the “100% Zuluboy” slogan used by the African National Congress (ANC) in reference to its leader at the time, Jacob Zuma, as evidence that “ethnic politics” was practised by other parties.

Hlengwa said that he believed the upcoming elections would show a “growth trajectory” for the IFP.

He says the party has “acknowledged our electoral decline throughout the years and we have been able to arrest this decline, judging by the 2016 election results.

“In 2016 we were able to regain our municipalities and we have done successfully well in some of the by-elections we have contested. These successes are because we have gone back to the basics and fast-tracked our grassroots movements,” he added.

According to Hlengwa, the IFP has “a track record of service delivery where they have governed” and a vote for the party is a vote against the corruption he attributes to the ruling party.

“We cannot achieve all that we want to achieve if we are bleeding and losing money, maladministration, and corruption.”

(Compiled by Daniel Friedman)

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