The IFP says it is looking to increase its support across the country in next year’s general election by ensuring that it attracts urban voters.
The Inkhatha Freedom Party (IFP) has had a strong support base in its home province of KwaZulu-Natal since it’s founding in 1975, however, Narend Singh, who is the Treasury General of the party and also serves as the party’s Chief Whip at the National Assembly, told Political Analysis South Africa on Monday, 23 April 2018 that the IFP is looking to change the perception that it is a rural-based party.
“We will consolidate our base in KwaZulu-Natal there has been certainly an upward trajectory since 2016…where we’ve won a number of elections even taking seats away from the ruling party,” he said.
Singh explains that the party has seen an increase in support from voters in urban areas, due to what the party says are a conflation of factors that have made the IFP more attractive than before.
He shared that IFP has “been getting enquiries. We’ve been getting calls from people who want to become members of the party. They are taking interest in the issues that we are raising. We are going to use that to our advantage and move to other provinces as well.”
Singh says the party has taken a pragmatic approach in the way it approaches issues in Parliament and that has caught the attention of voters.
“The leadership that we offer, the issues that we take up at national level, the fact that we are very pragmatic in our approach…we criticise the ruling party where we have to and praise them on the other hand, and there are a number of issues that we have raised in parliament that are attractive to the people out there,” he said.
Singh also touched on the issue of leadership succession in the IFP, reiterating that the party’s longtime leader, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who is 89 years old, would not stand for re-election at the party’s upcoming conference.
