IFP’s succession plan raises concern
An analyst says the anointment of little-known Velenkosini Hlabisa to take over from Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the founding Inkatha Freedom Party leader, could divide the party and cause instability.
An analyst says the anointing of little-known Velenkosini Hlabisa to take over from Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the founding Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader, could divide the party and cause instability.
Buthelezi, 88, announced at the IFP’s extended national council meeting in Durban at the weekend that he would step down from the party’s leadership at its next elective conference, expected to take place in December in Ulundi. He has led the party with an iron fist since its inception in 1975.
Some potential challengers for the throne have since fallen by the wayside, most notably former IFP secretary-general Musa Zondi, who resigned in December 2011, and former Zululand mayor Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi, who left the party to form the National Freedom Party in 2011.
Announcing the anointing, Buthelezi said the party’s structures had agreed that his position would be taken over by Hlabisa, who is the party’s KwaZulu-Natal provincial secretary and the mayor of Hlabisa Local Municipality.
Buthelezi said that while IFP leaders who wished to stand for the presidency would not be disqualified from doing so, the national council had agreed on Hlabisa as its candidate.
A prelude to the weekend move was the redeployment of IFP deputy president Mzamo Buthelezi (no relation to Mangosuthu) from his position as the mayor of Zululand District Municipality to the National Assembly to “strengthen the party’s caucus” there.
Many saw the deployment as a bid to remove him from his support base and cut the resources he would have used to fuel his campaign to succeed Buthelezi. According to IFP insiders, the two Buthelezis were said to have had a bitter falling out in recent times.
IFP leader Buthelezi is said to have told his trusted allies that the junior Buthelezi was planning to oust him from his position. Despite this he said he bore no bad feelings towards the junior Buthelezi.
“A few years ago, the party created the position of a deputy president with a view of allowing the deputy to take over should anything happen to me. Nothing happened and I am still around,” he said.
“This time, the national council may have felt that he [Mzamo Buthelezi] did not learn from my leadership and they instead opted for Hlabisa. Other leaders who want to contest can still do so,” the senior Buthelezi said.
Narend Singh, the IFP’s chief whip in the National Assembly, echoed Buthelezi’s line, saying the retirement of the senior politician had been coming for more than 10 years.
“He has been telling us as the leadership of the party that for some time now he would really like to retire and he doesn’t want people to continually vilify him as a leader who wants to be there for life.”
Singh said he believed Hlabisa would be able to lead and unite the party.
“Prince Buthelezi will continue to be the president until the conference. Our constitution does provide for anybody who wants to put names in the hat to come forward at [that] stage.
“But Mr Hlabisa has received the overwhelming support of the national council, which is 500 leaders of the party.”
Sifiso Kunene, a political analyst based in KwaZulu-Natal, said there were grumblings within the IFP, with some saying Buthelezi had anointed Hlabisa because he wanted to rule the party with a remote control.
“It is still too early to predict whether Hlabisa would be a leader who will be able to unite the party under his leadership. The circumstances under which he emerged as the sole candidate of the leadership leave so much to be desired.
“There are many leaders of the IFP who have a higher national profile and have been loyal to the IFP and its leader,” Kunene said.
“But now that he is going they are going to start raising their hands. These are leaders such as [IFP national chairman] Blessed Gwala, Mangaqa Mncwango, even Mzamo Buthelezi and others. I foresee the same kind of divisions that led to the formation of the breakaway National Freedom Party,” he said.
SOME POTENTIAL CHALLENGERS HAVE FALLEN BY THE WAYSIDE