We’ll make Ulundi the capital – IFP
The Pietermaritzburg business chamber says the move would destroy the regional economy
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) wants to move the Kwazulu-natal capital to Ulundi from Pietermaritzburg — where the provincial government and legislature have sat for 20 years — if it comes to power after the 29 May elections.
The plan has caused concern on the part of organised business — which says it would be a financial disaster for Kwazulu-natal — and is likely to put strain on the IFP’S relationship with its coalition partner, the Democratic Alliance (DA) in the province.
The IFP’S national and provincial manifestos do not make mention of moving the seat of government to Ulundi, which was the capital of the Kwazulu bantustan and which shared capital status with Pietermaritzburg from 1994 to 2004.
However, regional party leaders have been pushing a move from Pietermaritzburg — where a R6 billion suite of government offices is set to be built — in their campaign engagements ahead of the national and provincial elections.
The IFP’S top leadership, including president Velenkosini Hlabisa, have also publicly backed a move to Ulundi, which also has the support of Actionsa in the province and the Abantu Batho Congress.
Speaking at a business breakfast at Ulundi last week, the town’s mayor Wilson Ntshangase said the IFP planned to move the legislature to Ulundi as soon as it came to power and called on investors to pump money into developing the area.
“I think it will be a wise move for the investors to start preparing their plans to invest here in Zululand, in particular Ulundi, as we are anticipating inaugurating our Kwazulunatal legislature here at Ulundi, immediately after we have won the upcoming elections,” he said.
Ntshangase said Ulundi was historically the Zulu capital until it was razed by settlers in 1837 but had been rebuilt by IFP founder Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who had accommodated his Kwazulu government there.
Thousands of government officials had been housed at Ulundi — along with MPS and cabinet members — until “the inhumane decision that was taken by the ruling party” to move the capital to Pietermaritzburg in 2004, he said.
The actions of then premier S’bu Ndebele and his government had “adversely affected ordinary citizens and businesspeople around northern Kwazulu-natal and surroundings”.
“It is upon us to do whatever we can to break these shackles of poverty which were caused by a harsh decision to rob us of the economic freedom from Ulundi to the area, which was already well developed,” Ntshangase said.
“Let us liberate ourselves.”
He said the ANC had removed Ulundi’s capital status “just because it had the history of prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi”, but the decision had crippled the regional economy which had been built up during Buthelezi’s tenure in Kwazulu.
“It is important to revive our economy,” Ntshangase said.
The ANC in the province started the push for Pietermaritzburg as sole capital in 1999, arguing that the cost then of R50 million a year to run the two-capital system was too high.
Ulundi — a rural town about three hours’ drive from Durban — lacked accommodation and other facilities during the legislature sittings which took place in the former Kwazulu legislative assembly building
The governing party finally got its way after the 2004 elections, in which the IFP’S stance on the capital issue cost it the support of organised business in the province — and that of the DA — and, ultimately, control of Kwazulu-natal.
In November, Zulu King Misuzulu ka Zwelithini added his voice to the call for Ulundi to be proclaimed capital again at a meeting held with the IFP leadership in the wake of the death of Buthelezi.
At the meeting, the king said that he “fully” supported the move and would “gladly” perform the official opening once the legislature had been relocated.
Hlabisa said in response to the monarch that the IFP would do so once it had won the elections.
Pietermaritzburg and Midlands Chamber of Business chief executive Melanie Veness said the body was “outraged” by the idea.
“It would be an indefensibly expensive exercise, which the province cannot afford, and which would destroy Pietermaritzburg’s economy,” Veness said, estimating that the cost of such a move would “run into billions” and that unemployment would soar.
“Provincial government doesn’t have that kind of money to spend on an exercise like this,” she said.
“Infrastructure in our cities is falling apart — water, electricity and sanitation infrastructure is failing on a daily basis all over this province. Business and citizens need funds to be spent on infrastructure or we’ll not have much of an economy to speak of.
“In this context, such a proposal is irrational and unaffordable.”
Veness said she was not aware of any discussion with organised business about the proposed move.
“They haven’t consulted business, as far as I’m aware. Such a move would most certainly alienate the business fraternity.”
Actionsa Kwazulu-natal leader Zwakele Mncwango also made a call for capital status last year, a position which has been echoed by Philani Mavundla’s Abantu Batho Congress, which wants to set up a Zulu state in the province.
ANC provincial spokesperson Mafika Mndebele was dismissive of the idea of the Ulundi move. “The IFP knows it will not win,” he said.
Mndebele said that Ulundi had been built by Buthelezi during his tenure as a bantustan leader to “centralise control” over Kwazulu and as an expression of his ego.
“What the IFP is proposing is simply a waste of taxpayers’ money,” Mndebele said. “We are looking at how to build the economy and take us forward — the IFP wants to take us backwards.”
Mndebele said at a time when the debate nationally was around having parliament and government in the same city to save money, the IFP wanted to take the province in the opposite direction.
“How does this help in ensuring that outcome?” he asked.
DA Kwazulu-natal leader Francois Rodgers said that the party would not support the IFP’S move as the province could not afford it.
“Any additional burden on the provincial fiscus is totally unnecessary,” Rodgers said. “If there is a cost saving to the legislature, then it is something we could consider, but on face value I see absolutely no cost saving. I see additional costs.”
Rodgers said staff would have to commute from Pietermaritzburg and Durban to Ulundi — and be accommodated — at state cost, while the existing housing would have to be upgraded or replaced as it was in a state of extreme disrepair.
“Geographically, it makes no sense at all,” Rodgers said. “To start deciding where the capital is going to be purely for party political purposes makes absolutely no sense.”