Reading Time: < 1 minutes
Prince Zuzifa Buthelezi, the son of the late IFP president emeritus Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, says his father died emotionally concerned about the direction the ANC was pursuing. He was speaking during the memorial service of the late Prince Buthelezi in KwaMashu north of Durban.
The late Buthelezi was an ANC member in his teenage years.
Prince Zuzifa says 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 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 quatre 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,” says Buthelezi.
Meanwhile, IFP President Velenkosini Hlabisa has dismissed reports that there are looming divisions within the party following the death of party founder, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi.
The party held Buthelezi’s memorial service rally in KwaMashu, north of Durban.
Buthelezi died in September.
Hlabisa says reports of entrenched divisions eroding the party ahead of next year’s general elections 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, 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 day dreaming.”
