The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) president Velenkosini Hlabisa has dismissed reports of divisions in the party following the death of the party founder Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
The party held Buthelezi’s memorial service in KwaMashu, north of Durban on Sunday.
Buthelezi died in September at the age of 95.
Hlabisa says reports of divisions in the party are unfounded.
“His legacy will continue through the decisions we take and through the way we lead. I want to assure members of the IFP that the prince of KwaPhindangene left the IFP in safe and capable hands. Anyone who hopes that the IFP will fall into traps of division and eventually become ineffective must go and sleep because he or she is daydreaming.”
ANC
Speaking at the service, Buthelezi’s son, Prince Zuzifa says his father was concerned about the direction the African National Congress (ANC) was pursuing. The late Buthelezi was an ANC member in his teenage years.
Prince Zuzifa says at the time of his death, his late father felt ANC leaders had abandoned the party’s founding principles.
“I can never forget the pain Umntwana endured when the organisation of his youth abandoned the founding principles of his Uncle Dr Pixley kaSeme, which laid the foundation of the ANC in 1912. Having been mentored by Seme and iNkosi Luthuli, Prince Buthelezi was devastated to see the quarter of leaders in the ANC beginning to move the organisation away from its legacy. They changed the ANC’s founding character, and the rest is history. As umntwana lamented in parliament, had the ANC’s character and legacy been protected South Africa would not be in such a state.”
