IFP refutes claims of late Buthelezi’s face appearing on ballot paper

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*Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Velenkosini Hlabisa has refuted allegations that the late party leader Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi‘s face will be on the ballot paper.

Hlabisa says to his knowledge, it’s only incumbent leaders who appear on the ballot paper of the Electoral Commission.

The IFP NEC took a resolution that only the face of Buthelezi will be on T-shirts, as there appears to be a proxy war between Hlabisa and KZN Chairperson Thami Ntuli. Over the weekend, reports emerged that Hlabisa’s face wouldn’t be on the IEC ballot paper for the 2024 General Elections. Hlabisa has denied allegations of divisions in the party.

“The face of Mangosuthu Buthelezi is not going to be on the ballot paper. The ballot paper is an exclusive sphere for the IEC all we know the people who feature in the ballot paper are current leaders of parties. Late Prince Buthelezi remains a brand of the IFP and the t-shirts you will see his face as we pay tribute to his legacy but on the ballot paper, the IEC will still make a determination. The issue of the face may not be there because of independents,”

Tensions have simmered in the party between Hlabisa and KwaZulu-Natal provincial Chairperson Thami Ntuli. The two leaders are rumoured to be at loggerheads over the trajectory of the party.

“The question between myself and KZN chairperson Thami Ntuli is a fiction which some people in the media are trying to manufacture in order to create tension within the IFP. Every Monday, we sit with him in the NEC and we will share programs with him in the bi-elections taking place next week. We are tired of people who want to make the IFP lose focus for next year’s victory,” Hlabisa explains.

The IFP is part of the Multi-party Charter, along with civil society. The Khoi and San have requested the charter to acknowledge the genocide committed by settlers in South Africa.

“Very simply they must include in the documents the issue of the Khoi and San, and acknowledge the genocide committed by settlers on the Khoi and the San. They must tell us what they will do to memorialize the Khoi and San and show us their program that will redress crime, drugs, and all that was done to the Khoi and San,” says Richard Richard, Paramount Chief of Khoi and San.

The multi-party charter seeks to unseat the ANC nationally and provincially with a coalition government.