SENIOR IFP LEADERS JOIN ANC IN KWAZULU-NATAL
18 July 2013
The African National Congress (ANC) in KwaZulu-Natal joins millions of people in South Africa and all over the world in wishing our former President Nelson Mandela a speedy recovery from his recurring lung infection. Cde Madiba is the pillar of strength and source of inspiration to the ANC, South Africans and people around the world.
We also send a revolutionary birthday greetings to the 11th President of our National Liberation Movement, Comrade Thabo Mbeki who turns 71 today. The ANC is proud of the contribution Cde Mandela and Mbeki made to the liberation struggle and the creation of a united, democratic, non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous South Africa.
As the ANC, we feel humbled that the ANC's popularity in KwaZulu-Natal and indeed throughout South Africa remains uncontested.
Today we are welcoming very senior people from the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) who have just joined the ANC. The exodus of people from other political parties to the ANC is not as a result of our mobilisation and recruiting skills but simply because people see that the ANC is the only political party that brings political maturity, stability and effective management of democratic principle.
The ANC is pleased to welcome the following senior leaders from the IFP, Dr Usha Roopnarian and Roman Liptak who are joining scores of other former IFP leaders who have found a comfortable home in the ANC in the past few years.
They were not just ordinary members of the IFP but very senior people who have occupied very strategic positions. They have, over the years, desperately tried to help the IFP to adapt to the new democratic dispensation, the efforts that made them unpopular.
Comrade Liptak was not only a member of the KwaZulu-Natal legislature but also the right hand man of the IFP leader, Dr Mangosuthu Buthelezi. He was a researcher for the IFP and Buthelezi's speech writer.
Comrade Roopnarian successfully held a Shadow Health MEC position and her progressive thinking made her unpopular among confrontational IFP MPLs who accused her of being too lenient to the ANC-led provincial government.
Cde Liptak also did his best to steer the IFP towards issues of substance through the speeches he drafted for senior leaders but the IFP ignored them and chose to fire cheap shots at the ANC. This clearly shows that we have opposition parties that are destructive.
ANC also officially welcomed Comrade Pat Lebenya-Ntanzi who joined our glorious movement in July last year. Having occupied crucial positions in the Inkatha Freedom Party Youth Brigade, Comrade Lebenya-Ntanzi brings to the ANC a wealthy political experience. Cde Lebenya-Ntanzi was the national chairperson of the IFPYB and an IFP MP.
Receiving these high calibre leaders from the IFP proves that the people of KwaZulu-Natal regard the ANC as the only party for the future and that those who propagate that they will gain control of the province in the future live in a fantasy world.
While the support for other parties has been dwindling since the dawn of our democracy in 1994, the ANC support in KwaZulu-Natal has always been on a steady increase. Witnessing more and more new members joining the ANC augur well with our strategic goal of building a National Democratic Society.
Today the African National Congress in KwaZulu-Natal welcomed very senior people from the Inkatha Freedom Party who have just joined our movement. From left Cde Usha Roopnarian, ANC provincial spokesperson, Cde Senzo Mkhize, ANC provincial chairperson, Cde Senzo Mchunu, ANC provincial secretary, Cde Sihle Zikalala, ANC provincial deputy chairperson, Cde Willies Mchunu, Cde Roman Liptak and Cde Pat Lebenya-Ntanzi.
Statement issued by the ANC KwaZulu-Natal Provincial Secretary, Cde Sihle Zikalala, June 18 2013
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