‘Hlabisa stays. Buthelezi chose him’

The calls from some quarters of theInkatha Freedom Party(IFP) to have party presidentVelenkosini Hlabisaremain uncontested have set the tone for what is expected to be a bruising elective conference. Gauteng provincial chairperson Bonginkosi Dhlamini ignited the debate when he said that removing Hlabisa from power would amount to challenging the party’s long-standing legacy. Such a move, he said, was tantamount to insulting the wisdom of the late party founder, PrinceMangosuthu Buthelezi.

“Prince Mangosuthu did not say: ‘I’m thinking of leaving you with Hlabisa.’ He said: ‘This is the president, I’m leaving you with no one else,’” Dhlamini said during the funeral service of IFP activist Thokozani Mkhize. “We are talking about the legacy. If you challenge the legacy, you merely mean Buthelezi was not thinking properly.

The IFP’s legacy says the leader will be in power until he decides to voluntarily step down.” Dhlamini did not mince his words when he suggested Hlabisa should retain his position before the crucial party conference — the IFP’s first since the death of president emeritus Buthelezi in September 2023. “The problem we’re dealing with as the IFP is people feel there is something wrong when we call Hlabisa our president,” he said. “They have not healed from the2019 conference.” Dhlamini’s comments have brought to light the behind-the-scenes jostling between party factions, with some pushing for Hlabisa to stay on as president while his detractors are calling for change.

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Hlabisa was anointed by Buthelezi to succeed him in 2019 after the party founder had led the IFP since its formation in 1975. Despite growing calls for him to step down, Hlabisa’s leadership was largely shielded by Buthelezi. He now faces a real test without the figure of the party founder looming large.

The decision led to murmurings in the party between sympathisers of Hlabisa and supporters of Buthelezi, an inkosi of the eMbongombongweni tribal authority in uPhongolo. Although Hlabisa’s term of office has expired, the party has delayed its elective conference to a date that has yet to be announced.

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