By Zukile Majova
Political Editor
If the IFP regains control of the KwaZulu-Natal government in the upcoming general election, its premier candidate Thami Ntuli will have to take a lot of notes from the DA.
Specifically, he will have to learn a lot from DA federal leader Helen Zille, the most recent person to give the ANC a bloody nose in elections.
In 2006, Zille won 41.8% of the vote in the Western Cape and needed just six smaller parties to get over the 50% mark.
It is starting to look like Ntuli will be dealt a similar hand and will have to manage a group of strange bedfellows if he is to form a stable government in KZN.
The IFP strategy to unseat the bumbling ANC in the province started with an alliance with the DA – an unapologetically white party with racist baggage.
EFF leader Julius Malema has labelled the IFP a group of apartheid collaborators.
Last year, the party was in a coalition with the EFF in 13 municipalities in KZN.
The two later cut ties in an ugly spat over power sharing in hung municipalities.
But last week the EFF, which is in a coalition with the ANC in Johannesburg, dumped the ANC to join forces with the IFP during a failed vote of no confidence against eThekwini mayor Mxolisi Kaunda.
The IFP’s main darling in these power-sharing affairs is the DA, which has declared the EFF public enemy number one.
DA leader John Steenhuisen says the 11-member Multiparty Charter for South Africa, which he leads, is designed to stop the ANC and block the EFF from getting into government.
The IFP is in bed with 10 opposition parties, some of whom are helping it hold on to several key municipalities in northern KZN.
As if that was not enough, IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa has already confirmed that the party will be happy to join forces with the uMkhonto Wesizwe party, which has the support of former president Jacob Zuma.
This ANC splinter is eating away at the party’s base in KZN and has altered the balance of power in the province.
The IFP needs its 10 partners because even though it ran the KZN government for two terms (1994-2004), it has never won the province with a clear majority.
I do not know IFP premier candidate Thami Ntuli’s diplomatic skills, but he appears destined to manage a complex coalition if the ANC loses power in the kingdom of the Zulus.
Pictured above: IFP President Velenkosini Hlabisa and KZN premier candidate Thami Ntuli.
Source: X
