IFP on voter registration drive at Maponya Mall
The IEC has called on all South Africans, especially young people, to use the last weekend of January as the final opportunity to register and ensure that their addresses are in order.
Maponya Mall was the busiest on Wednesday, January 16 when Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in Gauteng kick started its voter registration campaign in style at the mall, attracting young South Africans to register to vote in this year’s national and provincial elections.
Clad in their party regalia and t-shirts bearing the face of their leader, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, MP, scores of young and old IFP supporters gathered at the Mall where they sang and pledged their readiness for the upcoming 2019 General Elections. The IFP, founded by its veteran leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi in 1975, adopted the elephant as its logo in 1998 and among the song sang was ‘Iyaphi indlovu? Iyaphambili’, meaning, ‘Where is the elephant going? Forward’, in English.
The launch occurred ahead of the final Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) voter’s registration weekend of 2019 January 26 & 27, and subsequent to the launch of the IFP’s National Voter Registration Campaign organised in Durban on January 15.
Delivering the keynote address, the IFP Chairperson in Gauteng, Bonginkosi Dhlamini, MPL said that they were there as the party to encourage the people of Soweto to register to vote.
“Registration gives one the power to vote and to hire or fire leaders in government. As the IFP we are saying you can trust us again. You trusted us in 2016 during local government elections and no one was able to form a government in Ekurhuleni, Mogale City and City of Johannesburg. Trust us again so no party can form a provincial government without the IFP,” Dhlamini said.
After the keynote address, the IFP provincial leadership embarked on a walk-about in the areas close to Maponya Mall to interact with and encourage all eligible voters to register. At this point, many residents raised issues such as unemployment, lack of housing and proper sanitation and corruption as some of the challenges they were grappling with and called on the IFP to iron them out once voted into power.
The IEC has called on all South Africans, especially young people, to use the last weekend of January as the final opportunity to register and ensure that their addresses are in order.
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