The IFP in the KZN Legislature has expressed shock at the fact that Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi issued a media statement yesterday on the passing away of Dr Kaunda but the media chose not to publish it.
This is surprising. We don’t know whether it is an attempt by the media to silence the voice of Prince Buthelezi and added to that we suspect that the media did not like what was contained in the statement which disproved a certain narrative that the media wants the people of South Africa to believe that Prince Buthelezi was not held in high esteem by statesmen of the world including Dr Kaunda.
The statement issued by Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi was profound for it revealed among others that it was Dr Kaunda who advised Prince Buthelezi to form a membership based organisation which resulted in Inkatha Yenkululeko Yesizwe being formed which was a forerunner to the IFP as we know it today. The Youth of today and voters of our country deserve to know the condolences passed by Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi to the people of Zambia and to the Kaunda family.
We who are members of the IFP are eternally grateful to the late Dr Kaunda for suggesting to our Leader that he forms a membership based organisation which resulted in us having a political home in Inkatha which was involved in the struggle for liberation and the IFP which was part of those organisations that gave birth to a democratic South Africa as we have it today.
What was said by Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi through the statement he issued on the passing away of Dr Kaunda represented our views and expressed our gratitude to Dr Kaunda, to the people of Zambia and to the Kaunda family for who Dr Kaunda was to us and to the people of Zambia and to the whole continent of Africa.
We thought we must register our concerns about this unfortunate omission on the part of the media.
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Contact:
Mr OTTO B KUNENE
IFP NEC Member and Deputy Chief Whip in the KZN Legislature
0834179944
