By Lehlohonolo Lehana.
The launch of the Inkatha Freedom Party’s (IFP) election manifesto on Sunday, 10 March 2024 saw party president Velenkosini Hlabisa unveil the party’s 13-point plan, which it says would give South Africans hope and rescue the country from poverty, unemployment, rampant corruption, a stagnant economy and high levels of crime and criminality.
One of the party’s main aims for this 29 May election is to take over the KwaZulu-Natal government from the African National Congress (ANC).
This was the party’s first manifesto launch without its founder and president Emeritus Mangosuthu Buthelezi who died in September last year.
The IFP believes using its late leader’s face in its campaign, will yield the desired outcomes.
His son, Prince Zuzifa Buthelezi, addressed the rally ahead of Hlabisa, expressing his family’s support for the party his father founded in 1975 and led for more than four decades.
Supporters were transported to Durban’s Moses Mabhida Stadium from all corners of KwaZulu-Natal, Mpumalanga and the Eastern Cape, ranging from the elderly to men carrying traditional weapons such as shields, sticks and spears and children barely in their teens.
Spirits in the full stadium were dampened, however, when it was announced that at least 36 people had been injured when three buses ferrying people to the manifesto launch in Durban were involved in an accident on the N2 near Gingindlovu in KwaZulu-Natal.
Unveiling the manifesto’s 13-point plan, Hlabisa said his party’s “programme of action” focused on creating jobs, unlocking the economy, dealing decisively with crime and corruption and ending rolling blackouts by diversifying the energy sector.
These included ending loadshedding through a mixed, diversified energy system and ending illegal migration while reserving jobs and access to small business for South Africans.
The party undertook to improve healthcare at local and provincial level and to boost the welfare system while improving food support for indigent households.
The party would ensure that data costs were cut by half to address “anti-poor” pricing, while it would “put poor urban and rural communities first” by working with and supporting traditional leaders.
The party promises to roll out free basic education and commits to “reforming” National Student Financial Aid Scheme (NSFAS), introducing a graduate support grant of R3 000, for a fixed period and redirecting funding from the Sector Education and Training Authorities (SETAs) to pay for 12 month internships with government departments and municipalities.
On job creation, Hlabisa said an IFP government would impose 80/20 employment targets across industries to ensure locals got jobs, while entry level and low skill sectors should be reserved for South Africans.
Likewise, only South Africans would be allowed access to the small enterprise and spaza shop market; while small and medium sized businesses should be exempt from red tape and other barriers to entry.
The IFP would support expansion of the industrial cannabis and hemp industries as a catalyst for local economic development and job creation in rural areas; along with funding for local level businesses.
The party would also enforce Competition Commission findings on South Africa’s high date prices and ensure that they were cut by 50% and would introduce a R3 000, fixed term unemployed graduate grant “to assist graduates in finding meaningful employment.”
On crime, the IFP would improve police funding, training and numbers, while creating a culture of “accountability, professionalism and ethical conduct, strengthening public trust and confidence in law enforcement”
The party in government would enforce a zero-tolerance policy towards police corruption, and fast track the prosecution of offending members, irrespective of their seniority or rank.
The SANDF’ would be upskilled and better funded at the international norm of 2% national budget and would be deployed both on border control and internal crime combating duties.
The IFP would also construct border walls to improve security and deal with illegal immigration, while technology would be improved under a stand alone national immigration inspectorate.
Businesses employing illegal migrants would be banned from operating for a specific time period, while the permit process would be reviewed, with a six month amnesty introduced to allow people to regularise their paperwork.
On ending load shedding, the IFP undertook to at least partially privatise Eskom, saying it would be “managed through a public-private partnership”, with the electricity price for poor communities being subsidised through this.
The IFP would deregulate the fuel price, with the import industry being opened to anybody who could provide guarantees and build refineries to standards set by the state.
Coal would be retained, while gas-from-coal; solar, wind and other means would be utilised to improve the country’s generation capacity. New state building – and low cost houses – would be constructed with solar panels
The IFP would subside citizens who could not afford homes, implementing rent-to-own low cost housing schemes in partnership with the private sector using state owned land – and providing serviced sites for self-homebuilding.
The party would conduct a land ownership audit aimed at identifying state land for reallocation, while maintaining a policy of “expropriation with reasonable compensation”.
The Ingonyama Trust would remain and a similar approach of control of communal land through structures of traditional leadership would be extended to the rest of the country, under an IFP-led government.
The safety and protection of traditional leaders – currently under threat in KwaZulu-Natal in particular – would be prioritised, while they would also be empowered to play a leading role in rural development.
The IFP would also merge the agriculture, land affairs, and traditional affairs ministries into a single entity to reduce the cost at cabinet level and to streamline their functions.
Watch Live in the video below:
Video Courtesy of IFP.