Durban - With local government elections set down for 2021, the IFP has already started its campaign with the aim of snatching more municipalities from the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal.
Provincial IFP chairperson Thami Ntuli said the party had identified the South African Democratic Students Movement (Sadesmo) as the most suitable vehicle to galvanise young people to vote for the party.
“Every weekend, I am campaigning. On Sunday, I was in Mooi-Mpofana, and this weekend I will be in eThekwini and Umvoti. Other leaders will also be in other areas,” said Ntuli.
Sadesmo, the IFP’s student wing, operates at tertiary institutions, but the IFP has indicated that it wants it to also lobby pupils at high schools.
Ntuli said that although young people constituted more than 50% of the IFP’s membership, the party believed that high school pupils had not been mobilised enough.
“Since the youth is the future, it is important for the IFP to educate them about the party and South African politics so that they make informed choices,” he said.
Ntuli, meanwhile, warned that the party would not tolerate laziness among its councillors, emphasising that the IFP wanted to achieve a clean audit in all its municipalities before the elections.
The IFP in this year’s general elections unseated the DA as the province’s official opposition.
Ntuli said the party now had its sights set on increasing its seats in several municipalities. Of the 13 municipalities under the IFP, three are governed through a coalition arrangement.
Ntuli said the IFP was ahead of the ANC in expelling poor-performing councillors.
The ANC has removed Zandile Gumede and Themba Njilo as mayors of eThekwini and Msunduzi municipalities, respectively, after it had found they had performed poorly in their service-delivery mandates.
“In Endumeni Municipality, we were the first to remove the mayor (Richard Mbatha),” he said.
“Even if we were aware that the decision we took was going to jeopardise the chance of continuing leading Endumeni, we said we would rather not keep this municipality if there were wrongdoings that hampered service delivery,” he said.
He said the IFP had also acted against the executive of the Mtubatuba Municipality, adding the IFP’s political oversight committee was still dealing with challenges facing some of its municipalities.