The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) Youth Brigade on Thursday reacted angrily to a statement by African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) president Julius Malema, who called on his party members to campaign in IFP strongholds.
Speaking in Pietermaritzburg on Wednesday, Malema said his party would campaign in Nongoma, KwaZulu-Natal, despite attacks on ANC supporters there during a rally at the weekend.
Malema said his party was not afraid of the IFP supporters who allegedly assaulted ANC supporters, adding that the ANC would go back to Nongoma and even campaign in the backyard of IFP leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
Youth Brigade spokesperson Thulasizwe Buthelezi said campaigning in the backyard of the party’s leader would trigger a serious reaction from IFP supporters.
”It is an act of extreme provocation and an unforgivable insult for Julius Malema to say that he will campaign in Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s backyard and that he will go and recruit Prince Buthelezi’s children to join the ANC.
”If the ANC provokes us then they must expect a reaction. We promise Malema and the ANC that our reaction will not be mild.”
Buthelezi said what the ANC had seen so far was ”a Sunday school picnic compared to what was to follow if the party continued to provoke, insult and harass the IFP and its leader”.
He was referring to incidents at the ANC rally at the weekend.
Six people were severely assaulted when the buses transporting them to the rally were hit by stones.
ANC MP Prince Zeblon Zulu and his daughter-in-law, Dorris Zulu, were shot at after leaving the rally. They both survived.
Buthelezi warned the ANC that if it provoked IFP members it had to expect a reaction.
”ANC president Jacob Zuma lives in an IFP-controlled ward within an IFP-controlled municipality. Yet no IFP member has ever gone to his homestead to campaign out of respect for the office he holds,” he said.
Earlier this week, ANC secretary general Gwede Mantashe laid the blame for the weekend violence in northern KwaZulu-Natal at the feet of the IFP.
”IFP members were openly stalking buses … there was no provocation,” Mantashe told South African Broadcasting Corporation radio in an interview.
”The IFP always regarded Nongoma as its stronghold and therefore it saw the presence of the ANC as [an] intrusion into its own character.” — Sapa