Open letter to Mangosuthu Buthelezi: iLIVE

Dear Mangosuthu Buthelezi. Before writing this letter, I said a small prayer along the lines of “May my safety be guaranteed as my words may be misinterpreted as being an insult to an old man.

I just wish to share my thoughts. Amen.” I felt it necessary that I do such with laborious reasons in mind. I will try and be brief, but I am guaranteed you will understand if I pour many words because you do hold the record of the longest speech ever delivered I believe. I think it was 24 hours or so.

I pen this letter to you particularly because of the outcry that is deafening our ears from the public due to the demise of public governance in our country.

Ordinarily I should be writing to you while you enjoy the splendour of your home every day without having to wake up and do the strenuous task of being part of our legislators in Parliament.

Whilst some, including yourself, will falsely sell this as deep commitment on your part to the people of South Africa, I view it as out of order. A man of your age should be at home.

You are 83 years old, that is three years older than my grandmother is, there is no way I believe that a person of that age makes an efficient parliamentarian and servant of our people.

The problem is that traditional leaders who are in politics behave as if that political leadership is also hereditary. It is not, it must be informed by the desires of the party members, and it must be premised on the needs of society and meeting the objectives set out by the political party.

I have often heard this mantra of “it is the people that ask me to stay as the leader of the IFP”.

 Let me tell you something, in politics, you engineer your stay, in the IFP you have forced your stay and this is particularly because of the imposed mentality like that of Bobby Motaung who believes that because Kaizer Chiefs is a family business he is not answerable to the supporters.

In the same line of thought, the IFP is inseparable with the “Shenge” image and for that particular reason; the IFP becomes a party that is more about sustaining your prominence and presence within the political circles of South Africa.

Unless I am not aware of what a dictatorship is, to have been the leader of the party since 1975 till to date does not only border on equating to a dictatorship, it is a dictatorship.

The IFP is in need of a new leadership, a new figure that can inspire the majority people of our country. You are 60 years older than I am; I feel no connection to you because of the age and nothing more.

We are in the 21st century and the world is evolving rapidly and all organizations, which the IFP is a part of, that seek to be part of the societal development agenda must be led by people who can intimately understand the current times.

I do not believe that you are such a leader who can comprehend these turbulent times that the world finds itself in. I do not doubt your intellectualism, but it does not belong in isolation to the reality that your party needs change of leadership and it needs a makeover.

The IFP is failing to significantly capture young people, the majority of the young people in the IFP are those who have inherited IFP membership from their parents because the party is traditionalist and ran like a kingdom. If the Chief is not happy then there shall be no space for that which the King of the kingdom is unhappy with.

That is not democracy that is fascism and it is the kind of leadership that amounts to controlling the members instead of leading and serving them.

What I must agree that you have done well over the years is the imposition of yourself, so much that many ask with conviction “What is the IFP without Buthelezi?”

This question seeks to address the lack of transformation in the party and people ask it because they want to have a new leader in the party but they are scared to lead a rebellion. When Zanele Magwaza-Msibi stood up and openly challenged you, you oppressed her and ensure that she is driven out of the party.

The IFP has lost leaders before but it never was dented in the manner that the breakaway of the NFP did. Irrespective of your own conspiracy theories about the formation of the NFP, the reality is that there was credence in the reasons advanced by those who left your party because they felt imprisoned in what was supposed to be their political home.

Not supporting Buthelezi amounted to victimization and isolation. A political party that cannot manage itself efficiently and hold proper elective conferences cannot be trusted with governing the country.

This is also another reality that has been shown clearly in the National and Provincial Elections as the IFP consistently loses about 2% every time since 1994. What this means is that, if there is no change of direction in the party, by 2024 the IFP will be on 0.6% of the national vote.

The new community of voters that needs to be captured by any political party is the young people. I must agree that some many young people can relate to your style of wearing shades, but at times I feel that they are overly worn and give Stevie Wonder a run for his money.

Be that as it may be, the IFP has three fundamental things contributing to its demise:

·         Regionalisation of the party. It is a KwaZulu Natal province party that does not embrace other provinces well.

·         Zulunisation of the party. Even if the IFP exists in Gauteng, you will find that the majority of members there are Zulu speaking. In the other provinces with very little presence of Zulu speaking people, the IFP has failed to significantly make an impact.

·         Unchanging leadership is the other thing that has impacted negatively in the life line of the IFP. This aspect becomes less important to you because you are the leader that has been hogging the spotlight of leadership.

When one day we have to answer as to how did the arrogance of the ANC prevail in our society and what has contributed to the weakening of the opposition in South African politics, you will stand as one of the greatest contributors to this demise along with Bantu Holomisa and Terror Lekota.

If we were to do a quick calculation: the IFP needed to sustain its 1994 10% of the national vote and be the building block of opposition politics.

At some point just between the UDM and the IFP there was a good almost 15% shared by these parties, all that they needed to do was to grow and they dismally failed and that failure is an indictment on the leadership.

You have become a serial failure and that is disappointing but you have a chance to redeem yourself. Please walk away and create space for a new leadership.

I was saddened when I heard that Musa Zondi might not contest any leadership position in the IFP.

The reality is that he feels that there is no room for growth, there is no way that he wants to be an ancestor of a Secretary General for the party because he understands that politics of today must be transformative and an important part of that is democratic practices and the changing of leadership.

The reason why I said a short prayer when I was about to write this letter is because I am not too sure how this letter will be received by yourself and the traditionalist backers who may easily view it as public disobedience.

However, in you I have seen the dangers of a patriarchal person being made a leader of a party that should be democratic. Patriarchy is a natural part of monarchists.

There is nothing democratic about Chiefs and that is why you have failed to be democratic in your party whilst constantly arguing for a more democratic South Africa. 

The IFP is now a lost cause that may find a space to be rescued if you address the three concerns outlined above but when such concerns have become the culture that defines the mere existence of the party, that means the party itself becomes a problem and problems are damaging.

I am not looking at taking up membership in the IFP but the waning of the support of your party is worrisome as it lessens the strength of opposition parties that in majority represent black people.

It is all in your hands to do the right thing and that is to put the interests of the people of South Africa before your own. It is only you that can undo the damage that you have caused over the years.