Rivalry is healthy, says the IFP’s Hlabisa

IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa said the hotly contested nature of the elections on May 29, especially in KwaZulu-Natal, was welcomed.

Hlabisa and IFP supporters were on a clean-up campaign in Lamontville, south of Durban, on Monday.

“The competition in KZN is very healthy and interesting ... It keeps everyone awake and no one is sleeping on duty.

“In the remaining 16 days, we will be embarking on a get-out-to-vote campaign targeting undecided voters and urging them to make a decision.

We are saying people must give red cards to the people that have repeatedly failed them,” Hlabisa said.

While the image of the party’s founder, the late Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, has appeared alongside Hlabisa on party banners and posters, it is Hlabisa’s image that will appear on the three ballot papers on election day.

The 2024 general elections will be the first contested by the IFP without its long-standing leader, Buthelezi.

Hlabisa said Buthelezi had laid a good foundation for him to “take the baton and make the party prosper”.

“The IFP continues to grow each day and this is due to the work done by the late Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi.

“His great legacy will continue to live on because he changed the lives of many South Africans. We are now 16 days away from the elections, our campaign is well on the ground throughout South Africa. We have gone to the Eastern Cape, Free State and Gauteng.

This coming weekend I am going to Limpopo.”

Hlabisa said interacting with people across the campaign trail had highlighted the concerns over unemployment, crime, corruption, load shedding and difficult living conditions are rife.

Thabani Mshibe, a resident of the Lamontville transit camp, said he would vote for a party that would make a difference in the lives of people who are unemployed and living in informal settlements.

Another resident Thobekile Ngubane said she is undecided about who she will be giving her vote to, saying she first had to analyse the different promises made by parties before settling on a decision.

“People have come here and said a lot of things. We really need change and I want to give my vote to someone who is going to bring about change,” she said.

The party held its manifesto launch at Moses Mabhida Stadium in March, saying it was focused on “practical approaches and solutions to the biggest crises affecting the nation”.

Hlabisa, addressing thousands of supporters, delivered a 13-point plan and said the country’s economy had regressed in the past five years, with minimal growth and a lack of job creation.

Hlabisa said with unemployment sitting at 41%, the effect of crime on communities, the devastating impact of load shedding and the high cost of living with increasing fuel prices, the country was on the brink of collapse.

He said employment was critical to delivering social and economic justice for all citizens.

The Mercury