NFP takes ‘tribalist’ IFP to task over ‘nine wasted years’ Ramaphosa letter

The National Freedom Party (NFP) has written a statement attacking the the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), the party it broke away from in 2011.

The NFP accuse the IFP of “playing tribalist politics” and engaging in “populist stunts” after the latter party penned a scathing open letter to President Cyril Ramaphosa, accusing him of being “opportunistic” in his calling the presidency of his predecessor, Jacob Zuma, “nine wasted years”.

Ramaphosa didn’t say a word while serving in Zuma’s national executive, the IFP’s letter charges, and so shouldn’t talk about “nine wasted years”, because as a deputy president and an ANC National Executive Committee (NEC) member, he was complicit in them.

In response, the NFP says the IFP has been part of the government during the “nine wasted years” and so should also shoulder some of the blame.

The two parties do seem to agree, however, on the fact that Ramaphosa shouldn’t talk about “nine wasted years” as if he was wasn’t there.

The “blame shifting game by the president of the country Mr Cyril Ramaphosa to then former president Mr Jacob Zuma, will not solve the problems ordinary South Africans are facing at the moment,” the NFP statement says.

Where they differ is on whether or not it is only those in government who come from the ANC who should be taken to task, and on whether or not the last nine years can be singled out at all.

READ MORE: Ramaphosa accused of standing by ‘silently’ during Zuma’s ‘nine wasted years’

According to the NFP, the “challenges” South Africans faced after apartheid did not “begin” when Zuma took office, and were there since Nelson Mandela assumed leadership of South Africa in 1994.

The party then goes on to accuse IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi of having made mistakes while in government – Buthelezi was minister of home aAffairs from 1994 to 2004 – which they feel mean the party has no room to talk about “wasted years”.

Among Buthelezi’s wrongdoings, according to the breakaway party, he was allowing an “uncontrollable number of undocumented foreign nationals” to “flock” to the country.

The statement also takes the veteran IFP leader to task over his alleged role in facilitating members of the controversial Gupta family in becoming naturalised while at the helm of Home Affairs.

“It is being opportunistic and populist of the IFP to only quote the ‘9 wasted years’ instead of tracing back from 1994 which also exposes Inkatha Freedom Party of high levels of incompetency,’’ said the NFP’s Sabelo Sigudu.

The statement then goes on to accuse the IFP of sending the letter in an attempt to deflect from the party’s “internal factional battles” and the lack of service delivery in IFP-run municipalities, which the party said had led to protests.

The IFP must fix its own governance rather than “entertaining ANC squabbles”, according to the NFP.

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