Cape Town — Leader of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), Velenkosini Hlabisa, has said that his party does not fear former president Jacob Zuma and the uMkhonto weSizwe (MK) party.
The MK party will be involved in a hotly-contested battle alongside the IFP and the African National Congress (ANC) as to who will reign supreme in Kwa-Zulu Natal (KZN) after this year’s elections on 29 May.
Zuma amassed a strong following in KZN during his time with the ANC, and is expected to lead the challenge against the ANC.
Hlabisa, who topped his party’s national parliamentary list, said the IFP would retake KZN from the ANC, irrespective of the MK party’s presence, and added that the new party was no threat to them, but that the ANC should be worried because it was stealing their members, The Citizen reported.
“It’s the ANC that would lose votes to the MK party and that would cause a split of the ANC votes. That split will help us, it will place the IFP in a better position,” Hlabisa said.
Regarding the MK Party, Hlabisa says that the @IFP_National is confident it won’t eat into their votes and adds that the ANC should be worried about former president Zuma’s party.#SAElections24 #CityPress pic.twitter.com/d3671bDTLr
— City Press (@City_Press) April 10, 2024
The IFP, who have notoriously been strong in KZN and is in charge of many municipalities thus making it a de facto government in the province, will be contesting the national ballot and targeted KZN and Gauteng as its main provinces to govern. The party have also strongly campaigned in Mpumalanga, Western Cape, Free State and Eastern Cape.
“Indeed, KwaZulu-Natal is our top target. The second target is to remove the governing party in Gauteng. We want to influence the decision-making at executive level in the province. Nationally we want push to reduce the ANC majority to below 50%,” he said.
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Picture: X/@IFP_KZN
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Compiled by Matthew Petersen
