Wednesday, 05 October 2005
The SACP believes that Chief Buthelezi and the IFP?s convening of the so-called ?Imbizo YaMaZulu? is nothing but a sign of a party that is deeply in trouble. As with with the National Party, we had correctly predicted as far back as the 1980s, that the demise of apartheid and its bantustan tentacles will also lead to the decline and possible decay of the apartheid and bantustan political parties. The National Party is gone, and the IFP is facing similar prospects, hence the calling of this IFP imbizo to try and stem its declining support.
This IFP imbizo, claimed to be an imbizo of the Zulu nation, is a return by the IFP to its old bantustan tactics. Fortunately we have now liberated our country and the KZN province, and there is no longer the apartheid regime and the KwaZulu Bantustan to buttress these IFP tactics. It is for this reason that as the SACP we see this IFP imbizo as reflecting the tactics of a dying political party, deprived of the support and patronage of the apartheid political machinery.
The convening of this IFP imbizo does nothing to unite the workers and the poor of our province, but is in fact a divisive act by a desperate party, using ethnic mobilisation to try and turn its fortunes around. It is these actions by the IFP that will finally expose Chief Buthelezi and his party as the biggest dividers of our people in the province.
Our constitution protects the multiple identities of our nation, and there is no threat to the identity, traditional and cultural practices and institutions of Zulu-speaking South Africans. They are an important part of the South African nation. Instead the biggest threat to our emerging constitutional democracy is the use of such identity and traditions for narrow party political purposes, as this IFP imbizo is doing. The challenge in our country today is job creation and poverty eradication, including productive land for rural people to build sustainable livelihoods and a better life for themselves. This is precisely what the ANC-led government in KZN is doing, and our people must refuse to be diverted from this important task by the antics of parties like the IFP.
The SACP calls upon the IFP to desist from using the identity of Zulu-speaking people for its narrow party political objectives. As we have said in the past Chief Buthelezi and the IFP have never been and shall never be spokespersons of Zulu-speaking South Africans.
The SACP also calls upon the workers, the poor and the landless rural masses of our province not to be fooled by these IFP tactics. It is also time now for ordinary IFP members to realise that all what the IFP elite is doing, is to try and retain for itself whatever little power and resources it had, as the IFP no longer controls the KwaZulu-Natal government. This IFP imbizo does nothing to further the socio-economic interests of ordinary IFP members.
Issued by:
Themba Mthembu
KZN Provincial Secretary
For further information contact:
Lindani Mathenjwa - 072 676 0275
Kaizer Mohau - 082 805 1085