/ 23 January 2008

IFP calls for hard labour for convicts

Hard labour for hardened convicts was one of the proposals presented at the launch of the Inkatha Freedom Party’s (IFP) Purpose, Vision and Values Programme in Durban on Wednesday.

Addressing the issue of crime in the country, the IFP’s Stan Larkan told the more than 3 000 delegates that ”hard labour needs to be introduced”.

Larkan did not go into detail about the party’s hard-labour policy. He also said ”political interference in the system [police] is rife”.

He said that the IFP was against the political appointment of senior police officers as well as political appointments to the judiciary.

”Working conditions of the judiciary need to be improved and appointments to the bench need to be depoliticised,” he said.

”The African National Congress [ANC] kid-glove policy has not worked,” said Larkan, who is also the current mayor of uMlalazi municipality (Eshowe).

The party’s top leaders, including party president Mangosuthu Buthelezi, IFP national chairperson Zanele Magwaza and the party’s secretary general, Musa Zondi, were present at the conference.

The party has seen its support slowly erode during the past 13 years.

Since 2004 the ANC has been the ruling party in KwaZulu-Natal and the IFP the official opposition.

Magwaza told the delegates that it was ”time for South Africa take a fresh direction under the IFP banner”.

She described the programme as ”a significant gear shift for the IFP”.

Zondi said the Purpose, Vision and Values Programme was a draft document that the party wanted to be debated across the country from ”the fishermen of Saldanha Bay to the domestic servants”.

Revealing the party’s thoughts on economic policy, IFP MP Narend Singh said the IFP would want to see labour laws changed, making it easier for small businesses to employ people.

”The laws are too inflexible,” he said. — Sapa