Slate politics halts IFP conference
POLITICAL analysts believe the postponement of the IFP’s national elective conference, scheduled for December, was a strategic move to avoid a brutal leadership contest and factionalism ahead of next year’s general elections.
IFP leader iNkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi has said the postponement of the party’s provincial and national conferences was due to slate politics.
Political analyst Dr Somadoda Fikeni said the challenge for the IFP might be the search for the right successor to Buthelezi who has been “a giant image and persona of the party”.
“It might be that the succession process is not taking place the way they might have hoped and therefore it’s taking longer to happen. The name that was presented (Velenkosini Hlabisa) may not be garnering the consensus they might have been hoping for,” Fikeni said.
He said the IFP could possibly be avoiding a brutal contest and instead could be looking for a negotiated rise of a new leader instead.
Political analyst Thabani Khumalo believes Buthelezi’s announcement was a strategic move to dispel the perception that the IFP was a one-man show.
He said the postponement of the conferences was a result of Buthelezi looking to campaign as the face of the party for next year’s election.
“It was a strategic decision that he took at a strategic time when the IFP is regaining support on the ground.
“In the past, he would say he would not contest, but then come back saying he had been lobbied by members to contest.