ANCYL: Buthelezi a dictator

2010-07-20 22:43

Pietermaritzburg - IFP President Mangosuthu Buthelezi was a dictator, who used tricks to hold on to his position, the ANCYL in KwaZulu-Natal said in a statement.

"The IFP is not a democratic organisation but a traditional cultural movement led by a dictator (Buthelezi)," said African National Congress Youth League (ANCYL) provincial secretary Bheki Mtolo.

The IFP on Sunday announced that the long awaited elective conference would no longer take place on July 23.

The party said it needed to conclude a disciplinary inquiry into its national chairperson, Zanele Magwaza-Msibi.

She is accused of failing to rebuke her "divisive backers".

"This man (Buthelezi) has deliberately postponed the conference because he fears that he might be voted out," said Mtolo.

He said his organisation was aware of Buthelezi’s old "dirty tricks" of not wanting to step down from his position.

Buthelezi has been IFP president since the party’s inception in the 1970s.

"We call upon all the youth of the IFP and everyone else who believe in democratic principles to leave the IFP and join the ANC."

Buthelezi was not immediately available to comment.

The statement released by the IFP on Sunday stated that the conference would only take place after Magwaza-Msibi cleared her name.

It said intra-party fighting had become violent and that the creation of "bogus party branches" was threatening to make the conference illegitimate.

The conference would continue only after the party was structurally sound and "current divisions have been resolved".

- SAPA