Buthelezi slates ANC, NFP
2011-05-15 19:53
Johannesburg - IFP president Mangosuthu Buthelezi slated the ANC and the recently formed National Freedom Party (NFP) at his party's final election rally in KwaZulu-Natal's uThungulu district on Sunday.
He said the ANC was a "self-centred and uncaring government", whose denial of "its own failure to make local government work is so strong that it will not budge before the loss of human life".
He cited the April 13 death of Ficksburg service delivery protester Andries Tatane, who was allegedly killed at the hands of police.
"The recent incident near Ficksburg, in the Free State, where a service delivery protester was shot dead by the police has come to symbolise a failed ANC-run municipality within a failed ANC-controlled state," he said.
"Andries Tatane, a local activist, took to the streets against the lack of basic services in his community and he paid for this with his life at the hands of the state police."
The shooting clearly showed that the ANC was more concerned about preserving its unchallenged power in all spheres of government than in ensuring it met its targets for the delivery of basic services to communities, said Buthelezi
He said the IFP break-away party, the NFP, led by his former national chairperson Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi had done "tremendous damage" to the IFP's public image and was only driven only by her "personal ambition".
"The truth is that voting for this new party is no different from voting for the ANC, whose influence and finances in the NFP are there to see for anyone who cares to look. The NFP is a party with not a single credible personality or policy," he said.
He also said he found it amusing that "all of a sudden delivery speeds up ahead of an election and how all of a sudden public infrastructure which desperate communities have had to wait for years magically appears for a hand-over in the run up to an election".
- SAPA
