IFP’s Velenkosini Hlabisa says disgruntled ANC members support MK

The IFP is not concerned about the rise of the Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) Party in KwaZulu-Natal, with IFP leader Velenkosini Hlabisa saying voters have not forgotten former president Jacob Zuma’s poor record in government.

Zuma is the leader of the newly formed MK Party.

Addressing the Cape Town Press Club on Tuesday, Hlabisa said MK was more of a threat to the ANC as its members and supporters were disgruntled ANC members.

“Regarding the MK, we are not threatened at all. The people of KwaZulu-Natal know who Jacob Zuma is. He had nine years as the president of our country. They know the damage he did,” said Hlabisa responding to a question. “It is only ANC members who are disgruntled who will move from supporting [ANC president Cyril] Ramaphosa to support Zuma because of the anger among them.

“In terms of being a threat, not all. We are just waiting to see when they launch their manifesto and the magnitude of their support because otherwise we hear just sound and noise.

“We haven’t seen exactly who these people are and how many they are.”

Hlabisa said his party was not keen on working with either the ANC or MK in the event the IFP falls short of the 50% + one needed to form a government on its own.

While he is in the dark about what the MK stands for, he said the little he had read — including the proposal to exile teenage mothers to Robben Island as punishment — was not appealing.

He said working with the ANC would be “the hardest” decision one would have to make.

“It will be difficult to work with the ANC because the ANC destroyed the country. If you want to fix South Africa, you cannot fix it with the people who destroyed it,” said Hlabisa.

The IFP is part of the multiparty charter made up of parties that seek to block another ANC government or an ANC/EFF coalition.

“The IFP is open to working with a number of political parties across the spectrum as long as we share a common direction.

“Obviously, it will be difficult to work with the political party whose condition is nationalisation of mines, nationalisation of banks or pure socialism. It would be difficult because we believe in the free market economy. Socialism has proven itself to be a failure throughout the world,” he said.

Hlabisa was confident that after the May 29 elections, SA would be governed by a coalition government. Besides the fact that the ANC’s majority has been decreasing with every election, Hlabisa said the MK Party was eating into the governing party’s support.

“In KwaZulu-Natal, it can only be through a miracle, which I don’t think will happen, for the ANC to remain in power or be a factor in who will govern.”

He said the IFP was doing groundwork to prepare for the inevitable

This entailed avoiding the repeat of the “disaster governments” of Johannesburg and Ekurhuleni, which the ANC governs with a number of smaller parties.

The metros have also seen a frequent change of mayors since the November 2021 elections.

“We cannot afford to have a South African government which will be a disaster like the City of Johannesburg. Look at how many mayors have been there since 2021, if not four it’s five.

“If Johannesburg was South Africa, we would be a joke in the world. It means we would have had five presidents in two years. There would be no progress, no services.

“That’s why we have the multiparty charter, we are preparing for a new government in 2024 because we don’t want to fall into the trap that the City of Johannesburg is.”

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