A revolutionary discussion document presented at an Inkatha Freedom Party national parliamentary caucus has called for “fundamental changes” to the party’s identity and leadership to stem voter decline and ensure the party’s survival.
The document has angered party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi to such an extent that he recalled all copies after the meeting and ordered that the caucus members do not consider it or leak it to the media.
This is despite the fact that the author of the document, Gavin Woods, the IFP’s former chairperson of the parliamentary standing committee on public accounts, was requested by the party’s leadership to write and present a discussion document on the party’s identity.
It is “brutally honest”, said an IFP MP speaking on condition of anonymity. “It opened a few eyes and that you can’t change if you want to keep on doing the same thing.”
The Mail & Guardian spoke to several IFP MPs who have read the document and provided a detailed summary.
The document is divided into two parts. The first part addresses “the party’s image problem and resultant voter loss”. It gives a meticulous historical account of the party from its formation in 1975 to the present.
“The paper notes that at some point the party began to make strategic mistakes because it misread the evolving politics of the late 1980s and early 1990s,” said a party member.
The paper asks, for example, whether it was correct for the party not to have joined forces with the African National Congress in 1994.
The second part of the document is what raised Buthelezi’s ire, said caucus members. The document suggests that the party is perceived as a “personality cult” and asks questions about whether it is appropriate that IFP leaders are “more popular than the party”.
It also questions the narrow Zulu ethnicism of the party, which has contributed to party’s declining support since the late 1970s. An opinion poll conducted by the German Arnold Bergstraesse Institute in 1978 showed that Buthelezi enjoyed the support of 43% of blacks in Soweto, Durban and Pretoria as opposed to Nelson Mandela’s 21%. However, over the years he used his connections to the Zulu monarchy to promote a narrow form of Zulu nationalism, which has become inseparable from the IFP. The ANC was portrayed as anti-Zulu and the support Buthelezi enjoyed among other ethnic groups 20 years ago has disappeared.
This document also suggests that the party should “reposition to connect with wider constituencies and move away from the regionalism that has come to characterise the IFP”, said a caucus member.
It notes that the party needs to manufacture a new image “that connects with the people,” insinuating that it has lost touch with the needs of its voters. The paper states that the party’s ideological stance should shift fundamentally from its narrow ethnic base and that the IFP should adopt social democratic principles if it is serious about positioning itself as the only “official black opposition to the ANC”.
Eric Lucas, chairperson of the caucus, said the document has not been removed from the agenda and that a “day will be set aside” to discuss it.