The IFP on Monday announced that its provincial chairperson and King Cetshwayo district mayor Thami Ntuli will be its premier candidate as the party looks to take back control of a province it last ran two decades ago.
A teacher by profession, Ntuli is understood to have received the backing of senior party leaders including the IFP mayors of several municipalities to succeed Nomusa Dube-Ncube as KwaZulu-Natal premier.
The party has been on an upward trajectory since the 2021 municipal elections – registering gains in wards considered the governing party’s strongholds such as Sweetwaters under the Msunduzi Municipality in Pietermaritzburg and an ANC-led ward in eThekwini metro.
However, last year was a challenging one for the party.
The death of the party’s founder and former leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi, whose image played a significant and crucial role in the 2021 local government elections, was a blow to the party although its leaders vowed to rally around his legacy at this year’s elections.
The party has also faced internal tension with a leadership tussle between Ntuli and president Velenkosini Hlabisa although the party appears to have resolved this issue by appointing Ntuli as premier candidate after last year moving Hlabisa to the National Assembly.
Ntuli on Monday said that 30 years after the demise of apartheid, the country had arrived at another crossroads.
“The forthcoming elections will be more destiny-determining than 1994.
We crushed apartheid, we achieved democracy, and we now need strong leadership to re-establish a new South Africa through the will of its people.
“We shall not dwell on the past any longer.”
He said that the province was crumbling because of corruption, poor management and unethical leadership.
“We have seen deepening levels of poverty, despair, joblessness, lawlessness, and many social ills.”
Ntuli said that the IFP is the official opposition in the province and controls the majority of municipalities – Nkandla, uMfolozi, uMlalazi, Mthonjaneni and the City of uMhlathuze.
“We have seen IFP victories in by-election after by-election. This speaks to a KwaZulu-Natal that has trust in the IFP and its leadership. We have seen people who are fed-up with the current government.”
He said that the party had grown.
“During our tenure as the governing party in this province, even before the dawn of democracy, under the leadership of uMntwana wakwaPhindangene (Buthelezi), we built thousands of classrooms, hospitals, institutions of higher learning, and decent houses.
“We have reached a point where, if in these upcoming 2024 elections we don’t reset, recharge, and reboot, we risk becoming a failed province.”
Earlier, Hlabisa said that Ntuli has been nominated and is unanimously backed by the national council of the party.
“The IFP’s campaign in KZN is focused on restoring an honest and working government in this province.
“We therefore seek to give the province the best possible candidate to run for premier.
“Our candidate is Arthur Thamsanqa Ntuli. We believe that he is most equipped, experienced and committed for the task of good governance in Kwa-Zulu-Natal,” Hlabisa said.
Hlabisa said the province had been in a state of decline and this needed to be halted. “This province was once at the forefront of development, education, industry, commerce, agriculture and entrepreneurship. It has endured 20 years of decline under a government that is riddled with corruption. Now is the time for KwaZulu-Natal to be restored.”