Delegates to South Africa’s official opposition Democratic Alliance (DA) federal congress in Durban over the weekend were greeted by a flood of posters on just about every lamp post in the area surrounding the International Convention Centre, advertising the candidacy of an Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) candidate and a DA candidate for the local municipal ward.
It was graphic evidence that the working relationship with Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s largely Zulu-based IFP is in tatters.
The ward was recently vacated by a DA councillor who crossed the floor to the African National Congress (ANC) which runs the city — but he did so without fulfilling the defection rules and lost the seat.
Party leaders in KwaZulu-Natal played down the contest between the parties as representing the municipal ambitions of a white IFP candidate — against a white DA candidate in a largely white ward. The DA expects to win the ward comfortably with the ANC carrying out a low-key campaign.
IFP Secretary General Musa Zondi was spotted at the DA congress but there were no warm notes flying between the parties — which only eight months ago were fighting as a coalition of change during the April national election. At the time, Buthelezi and DA leader Tony Leon criss-crossed the country addressing joint meetings.
The relationship — which aimed at keeping the ANC out of government wherever possible — has turned a little chilly since the IFP lost the province to the ANC and then accepted three Cabinet posts in the new ANC-led administration.
There was also a subsequent squabble over which party — the IFP or the DA — should be recognised as the official opposition in KwaZulu Natal, given that the IFP — the second biggest party in the provincial legislature — was in government. The DA also won that battle.
Meanwhile, the by-election, which includes the North Beach area of the city, part of the central business district and the upmarket suburb of Morningside, takes place on Wednesday, November 24.
The DA received 79% of the vote in the 2000 municipal election or 4 351 to 656 votes or 12% for the ANC and just 366 votes — just under 7% — for the IFP in a poll of just under 50%. – I-Net Bridge