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As his top priority, Hlabisa says he wants to bring unity back to the party
Out of a number of tasks the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leadership identified for newly elected president Velenkosini Hlabisa to tackle, the new leader has singled out as a priority bringing back unity to the IFP, which has been polarised by the succession battle leading up to his election.
DA KwaZulu-Natal leader Zwakele Mncwango agreed with Hlabisa, saying “his [Hlabisa’s] biggest hurdle will be bringing certain factions within the IFP together to work under him towards a similar goal”.
Speaking to City Press, 54-year-old Hlabisa said “although fending off calls for the expropriation of land belonging to the Ingonyama Trust and growing the footprint of the party beyond the borders of KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg were high up on his to-do list, bringing unity and camaraderie back to the IFP” was chief among his priorities.
“Ensuring we have a united movement working together to achieve the resolutions passed at the party’s elective conference will be the first port of call,” said the soft-spoken Hlabisa.
Mncwango said: “Not everyone will be happy with the manner in which he [Hlabisa] has attained leadership of the party, hence the murmurs and displeasure alleging that he was anointed and not elected. Be that as it may, for the good of the party, he now holds the position and needs to embrace even those who feel alienated.”
Hlabisa made the call to foster unity after there were allegations that some within the party’s ranks were unhappy with top leadership “being imposed” on the delegates at the elective conference because the party’s top seven were elected uncontested.
IFP former chairperson Ziba Jiyane, who recently rejoined the party 14 years after he was unceremoniously forced out of its second most powerful position, was among the loudest voices expressing their displeasure in the lead-up to the conference.
He wanted to contest Hlabisa at the elective conference but was prevented from doing so on a technicality.
The party’s national spokesperson said, as per party policy, a member was allowed to stand for election only after they had been a member for at least a year.
Mncwango said Hlabisa’s other dilemma would be filling the shoes of outgoing leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
That Hlabisa had named Buthelezi as the party’s president emeritus would go a long way in undermining his power within the party, Mncwango said.
“As far as I have heard, once Buthelezi says something, then no one goes against whatever he has said; this role [the party’s president emeritus] that he has been given means he will still be actively involved in party meetings and decision-making processes. Hlabisa will therefore need to have a backbone and hold his own,” said Mncwango.
During the IFP’s elective conference Buthelezi said that he would have preferred to take a break entirely from politics.
However, he was willing to serve in any role that Hlabisa and the new party leadership saw fit and unambiguously declared that Hlabisa would be steering the ship.
Hlabisa lauded the outgoing Buthelezi, saying he had learnt a lot from him particularly traits such as being virtuous and upright, as well as being respectful.
Apart from fostering unity, Hlabisa said land reform was a key issue that needed his party’s urgent attention.
Read: Buthelezi's swan song: I have served IFP for 44 years and I have never served alone
“Land has social, spiritual and economic value, meaning the resolution of the land issue carries with it the promise of healing the wounds of the past,” Hlabisa said.
He cautioned against handling the matter in a reckless manner saying it would have “the potential to deter foreign investment, ruining the agricultural sector and the economy”.
He rejected critics of the Ingonyama Trust, a stance that was taken by his predecessor, saying “it is those who haven’t studied the merits of the trust and noted how it was the only example in the country of large parts of land having remained in the hands of the black majority, who are advocating its dispossession”.
He reiterated that part of the new leadership’s immediate focus would be growing the party’s footprint beyond just KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg for the upcoming municipal elections in 2021.
“We are looking towards the 2024 municipal elections as our main priority. But before we get there, we need to get through the 2021 municipal elections which we are sure of doing well in. Our recent performance in the national and provincial elections demonstrated that we are on the right track and we believe we will win municipalities in other provinces besides KwaZulu-Natal and Johannesburg,” said Hlabisa.
Having been a councillor since 1995 until joining the KwaZulu-Natal legislature in May this year, Hlabisa is not in the national assembly and said it would stay that way as the party has faith in the crop of leaders now representing it in the Parliament.
Hlabisa, a teacher by profession, joined the IFP in 1978, three years after its formation in 1975.
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