Letter to the Editor
The City Press
Via email: [email protected]
Dear Sir:
I have taken note of the article by Paddy Harper titled “IFP changes tack as it charts a way to 2014”. The article quite bizarrely describes the IFP leader Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi as having a “desire to stay on” at the helm of the IFP despite his “failing health”.
I think we have almost a million times put forward the facts of the matter. Prince Buthelezi signaled his intention to retire in 2004, and again 2006, but it was the IFP’s Conferences that requested him to continue to lead the Party, in the interests of the Party. Prince Buthelezi serves at the behest of the rank and file of the IFP and not the other way around. And most certainly not because of a “desire to stay on”. Just think about it logically: why would the IFP let go of the most powerful weapon it has in its arsenal? The Buthelezi brand, as many a commentator has acknowledged, is a powerful brand.
Moreover, Prince Buthelezi is not suffering from “failing health”. I can assure you that he is healthier and more active than most people his age, and even many younger people of my age. He works at a pace and with a passion, dedication and commitment to politics and the South African people at large, that few people can match.
I sometimes wonder whether people are hallucinating or in lala-land when they dream up all these half-truths, fabrications and distortions about the IFP. It is really bizarre, quite frankly.
Liezl van der Merwe
Press Officer to Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi MP
