Fifty and going strong: IFP says it continues Buthelezi’s legacy
Velenkosini Hlabisa, President of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and Minister of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs (COGTA), said that the legacy of founding party President Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi lives on in the party.
The IFP is celebrating its 50th anniversary and golden jubilee this year. In a wide-ranging interview with Newsday, Hlabisa said few parties can claim such an achievement.
“There are very few political parties that are 50 years or older in South Africa that are still relevant. Even on the continent, you will find very few, so we don’t take it lightly,” he said.
The IFP is the third-oldest active political party in South Africa, after the African National Congress (ANC) and the Pan Africanist Congress (PAC).
It was founded in March 1975 as a liberation movement, Inkatha yeNkululeko yeSizwe, by Buthelezi and a small group of other South Africans. It quickly gained support from there.
By 1977, the party claimed to have had over a million card-carrying members, and Buthelezi was summoned to Pretoria and requested to restrict membership to Zulu-speaking South Africans, which he refused.
The party has been embroiled in controversy throughout its history, dating back to the late 1970s. In meetings with the ANC, leaders pleaded with Buthelezi to join the armed struggle against apartheid rule and support the call for international sanctions.
The IFP leader disagreed, as the party worried that the poorest in South Africa would suffer the most from international sanctions and disinvestment, and the party would not break its founding principle of non-violence.
According to the IFP, a long-running conflict between the two parties began when ANC Secretary General Alfred Nzo labeled those in the IFP as “politically bankrupt careerists and renegades” during a speech.
He said they had “betrayed the sacred interests of the people” and would be “swept away onto the rubbish heap of history.” The leader of the ANC at the time, Oliver Tambo, did not contradict Nzo.
A lone voice for the people – Hlabisa
The conflict with the ANC soon turned violent, costing about 20,000 lives on both sides. The clashes were later revealed to have been fuelled by the apartheid government.
“People tend to forget that during the time of apartheid, when all political parties that were speaking on behalf of the oppressed were silenced, and their leaders imprisoned, it was only the IFP,” Hlabisa said.
“Prince Buthelezi became a lone voice in South Africa. Many people did not know that it was he who came with a campaign to free Nelson Mandela, and for banned political parties to return to South Africa,” he added.
In 1990, Buthelezi was credited by FW de Klerk as the one who convinced him to release Nelson Mandela. Mandela publicly thanked Buthelezi upon his release.
The two leaders agreed to hold joint rallies to end the violence between the ANC and the IFP in 1991. According to IFP, however, the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal prevented Mandela from fulfilling this commitment, and the violence continued until 1994.
The party was involved in constitutional negotiations but withdrew from these talks in 1993, accusing the ANC and National Party (NP) of not negotiating in good faith and excluding outside voices.
The IFP planned to boycott the 1994 elections, but Buthelezi changed his mind at the last minute. The ballot papers were already printed, however, and Buthelezi’s photograph had to be attached to each ballot paper with a sticker.
The IFP won more than 2 million votes in 1994 and was elected to govern in KwaZulu-Natal, where it remains one of the biggest parties, and Buthelezi was appointed as the first Minister of Home Affairs.
The leader served as acting president for Mandela and later President Thabo Mbeki 22 times. The party lost its majority in KwaZulu-Natal in 2004 and became the official opposition.
In 2019, Buthelezi stood down as president when Hlabisa was elected unopposed to succeed him.
In the 2024 elections, the IFP secured 3.85% of the national vote, translating to 17 seats in the 400-seat National Assembly.
The IFP is now part of the Government of National Unity (GNU) coalition, alongside the ANC, DA, and other parties.
The IFP’s strongest performance was in its traditional stronghold of KwaZulu-Natal (KZN), where it plays a key role in the provincial government, including that of premier in a coalition with the ANC, DA and NFP.
Honesty and accountability
“While the prince as a founder is no longer amongst us, we took it upon ourselves to be the champions of the values and principles he stood for: Honesty, and leadership that accounts to its followers,” Hlabisa said.
The Minister said that the party will continue to take on Buthelezi’s approach to “acting on what is right for the people.”
“When there is an idea – it doesn’t matter who came up with the idea -as long as it is right, we will support it,” he said.
“Even in the GNU, where we don’t agree, we will maintain the principle of not supporting what is not in line with what we believe in.”
“From inception, the IFP has been the light. It has remained the light to the people of South Africa even today,” he said.
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