Buthelezi's time is up

Zapiro cartoon sourced from Mail & Guardian Online.


OPPOSITION parties in South Africa, with the exception of the Democratic Alliance (DA) and the Congress of the People COPE), are on their way to the grave.

The April 22 provincial and national election results provided irrefutable evidence that opposition politics in general is in decline. Parties such as the Independent Democrats, the Azanian People’s Party, the United Democratic Movement and the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) were conspicuous casualties.

While their dwindling support could be attributed to the emergence of COPE and the reinvigorated DA (the powerhouse of opposition politics), these parties need to do some serious introspection and rethinking to avoid death or being wiped off the political map.

The beauty about death is that while it is inevitably a natural process, it could at least be put at bay by employing life-saving measures and strategies. The IFP, in particular, really needs to have a serious look at itself if it is to survive in the current dispensation. Protest as it may, but the IFP is a party caught up in yesteryear politics in an era of ever-evolving modernity.

Without beating about the bush, the main cause of the IFP’s fading fortunes is one Mangosuthu Buthelezi, the party’s founder and leader since inception in 1975. Under his leadership the party is more steeped in tribal politics, hence its prevailing categorisation as a cultural organisation of the Zulus.

Formed as the Inkatha National Cultural Liberation Movement (of course, with the blessing of the then banned ANC) in 1975, the IFP has done little to shake off its tribal party tag. In fact, the party has over the years consciously or unconsciously operated in a manner that conforms to garnering support along tribal lines.

It must be pointed out that there is nothing wrong with the IFP being a tribal party like the Freedom Front Plus, but the party must stop pretending it is not a tribal entity. The IFP seems to use the Zulu culture to stifle internal democratic processes.

It’s a pity when cultures or the gospel of Jesus are perverted for the glorification of individuals or a particular group. This would explain why a political dinosaur such as Buthelezi has been in charge of the IFP since 1975. It’d be naive to say there's no IFP leader who can do better than Buthelezi.

He may have been democratically elected to his position, but again democracy can also be perverted. It is possible to present the fear of an individual as democracy. Apparently, Robert Mugabe is also a democratically elected president of both the Zanu-PF and Zimbabwe.

Now is the time for the likes of IFP chairman Zanele Magwaza-Msibi and secretary-general Musa Zondi to take the party forward. The IFP must allow for contestation – without fear of victimisation or reprisal – to take place freely. Members must exercise their right, of course in compliance with party rules, to voice grievances and to choose their preferred candidates. Buthelezi cannot always go unchallenged for his position.

The time is now for the party to reinvent itself if it wants to reclaim KwaZulu-Natal and pose a serious challenge to its nemesis, the ANC.

Buthelezi has overstayed his stay in the IFP leadership position, to which he is not entitled to by birthright. Fresh blood, please.

Cedric Mboyisa is political editor of The Citizen. This column first appeared in The Citizen.