Latest / Drive with John Perlman / How is Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) tracking in the 2026 Municipal Elections?

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How is Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) tracking in the 2026 Municipal Elections? · Drive with John Perlman

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  Speaker 2: From local issues to the bigger picture, follow the local
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  Speaker 2: government in actions. On 702 Drive with John Perlman.
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  Speaker 1: 702 Drive, let's get the perspective now of the economic freedom,
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  Speaker 1: I beg your pardon, the Inkata Freedom Party.
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  Speaker 2: I almost got mixed up.
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  Speaker 1: I'm joined by the national spokesperson of the IFP, Kuleko Llengwa.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much. for giving us your time. We
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  Speaker 2: appreciate it.
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  Speaker 3: Thanks to you, John, and good afternoon to you and
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  Speaker 3: the listeners.
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  Speaker 2: What do you make of your numbers so far?
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  Speaker 1: Obviously, you go in with ambition and hope and realistic
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  Speaker 1: expectation all mixed up together.
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  Speaker 2: Are you where you expect to be so far?
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  Speaker 3: Well, we did expect a mixed bag of results, given
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  Speaker 3: that we were having to also push back on the
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  Speaker 3: frontiers of 2024. And we had began consolidating even through by-elections.
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  Speaker 3: And I think that has helped us because in areas
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  Speaker 3: where the MK had come out very strong in 2024,
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  Speaker 3: we have been able to arrest the decline. To make
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  Speaker 3: an example, Ekumsinga municipality in the middle of KwaZulu-Natal was
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  Speaker 3: deeply problematic in 2024. And so it has held quite
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  Speaker 3: strongly in 2026. And we are also registering gains if
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  Speaker 3: you look at the takeover of Umzumba municipality on the
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  Speaker 3: south coast of KwaZulu-Natal and the takeover of Edumbe municipality,
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  Speaker 3: which is Port Petersburg, in the northern KwaZulu-Natal. But above
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  Speaker 3: and beyond that, in the city of Johannesburg, we went
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  Speaker 3: to these elections with two awards. We are currently standing
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  Speaker 3: at five. And so that is also consolidating on historically
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  Speaker 3: areas that we had been present in and had been
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  Speaker 3: taken away and so we are succeeding in the rebuilding project. So,
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  Speaker 3: by and large, it's holding. Our only area of concern, obviously,
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  Speaker 3: is our performance in Umklatuze. That has not been a
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  Speaker 3: good performance, and we will be going back to look
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  Speaker 3: at numbers and why our performance slumped as it did.
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  Speaker 2: So, Mkhla Tuzi, would that be Eskaweni? Mkhla Tuzi. Mkhla
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  Speaker 2: Tuba or not so far?
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  Speaker 3: No, Mkhla Tuba is another.
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  Speaker 2: Oh, Mkhanya Kude.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, it's Mkhanya Kude. Mkhla Tuba is the neighboring.
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  Speaker 2: Okay. Just using... Geography is good. To brush up on... No,
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  Speaker 2: it's very good geography.
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  Speaker 1: Let's step away from the numbers and the IFP's performance
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  Speaker 1: as measured in that way. Our political situation is completely
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  Speaker 1: different to what it was in the days when Everything
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  Speaker 1: was shaped by the prominence, presence, and predominance of the ANC.
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  Speaker 2: What is the IFP's role.
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  Speaker 1: In this absolutely fast-moving and very fluid South African politics?
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  Speaker 1: We know you're part of the National Governing Coalition. You
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  Speaker 1: perform an equivalent role in KZN. But with a local
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  Speaker 1: government election, is it different? just about trying to get
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  Speaker 1: positions in municipalities or play a role in coalitions or
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  Speaker 1: is there something more happening?
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  Speaker 2: A realignment of a different kind?
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  Speaker 3: Well for us it may be different maybe to other
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  Speaker 3: parts because we spent a long time governing in municipalities
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  Speaker 3: and we're out of provincial government and national government and
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  Speaker 3: so we've got a keen understanding about the importance of
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  Speaker 3: local government because that's where the tie hits the tower.
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  Speaker 3: Secondly of course is that whatever national program or provincial
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  Speaker 3: program that you have has to find expression in locality.
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  Speaker 3: My political science lecture is to say all politics is local.
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  Speaker 3: So if there's dysfunction, whatever national or province brings will
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  Speaker 3: not gain traction on the ground. So for us, it's
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  Speaker 3: an important connection and linkage and wherein you need the
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  Speaker 3: necessary knowledge, skills, expertise and experience to be able to
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  Speaker 3: drive all programs. It's not some. All programs require functionality
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  Speaker 3: of local government. So For us, this is less about
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  Speaker 3: the positions and more about ensuring that issues like maintenance, repairs,
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  Speaker 3: the cleaning up of cities, towns, and areas of human settlement,
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  Speaker 3: those basic things which are drivers of investment and so on.
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  Speaker 3: I mean, just to make an example, in Etiwini, we
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  Speaker 3: were opening a new line of Unilever for Vaseline, 100
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  Speaker 3: million rands investment. And Unilever was saying to us, they've
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  Speaker 3: had to spend 850,000 rands in one week on days
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  Speaker 3: of which there was an electricity problem. Now you can
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  Speaker 3: just imagine the ripple effect. It's one on cost, but
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  Speaker 3: also what it does for employment.
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  Speaker 2: And reputation.
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  Speaker 3: Exactly. And so when you have functionality there, your national
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  Speaker 3: ambitions of growth and so on find expression.
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  Speaker 1: And looking ahead to the time we're going to spend
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  Speaker 1: here at the Results Operations Centre and the equivalents in
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  Speaker 1: provinces around the country, to the conversations around that are
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  Speaker 1: certainly going to be front and center all over Gauteng,
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  Speaker 1: very prominent. It's likely in Etigwini. It's not clear that
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  Speaker 1: anyone's getting an outright majority. What can you tell us
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  Speaker 1: about the IFP's parameters around coalitions? Have you got red
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  Speaker 1: lines about who you're prepared to work with and not?
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  Speaker 1: Have you got a very clear negotiating structure already in place? And,
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  Speaker 1: of course, you have muscle memory from 2024, of course.
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  Speaker 3: Well, we come in with experience in coalition politics, particularly
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  Speaker 3: at local government. I know the narrative is about the
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  Speaker 3: dysfunction of coalitions. If you look at the city of Johannesburg,
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  Speaker 3: and it's justified because that revolving door of mayors was
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  Speaker 3: completely unacceptable. But there's another extreme wherein coalitions held for
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  Speaker 3: the full duration of five years. Umklatuza is one of them.
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  Speaker 3: Zululand District, one of them. Alfred Duma is one of them,
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  Speaker 3: where we were able to carry these municipalities. So one,
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  Speaker 3: we're bringing experience to the table of negotiations, what needs
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  Speaker 3: to be done. Secondly is the fact that obviously coalitions
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  Speaker 3: our manifesto is going to be our North Star, and
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  Speaker 3: we want to see what basic minimum program for development
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  Speaker 3: and service delivery can be agreed upon by the parties.
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  Speaker 3: What we can put now is that we're not prepared
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  Speaker 3: to govern at all costs. It's not just about positions,
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  Speaker 3: but it's about service delivery first. And so... If there's
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  Speaker 3: no clear path forward for governance or governing, then we
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  Speaker 3: will have to take up our seats in the opposition benches.
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  Speaker 3: The NEC of the party is going to meet on Monday.
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  Speaker 3: The delegation here at The Rock is led by the
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  Speaker 3: Deputy Secretary General. We will complete our report on Sunday
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  Speaker 3: and hand it over to NEC, which will do two things.
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  Speaker 3: is put the team together for negotiations and secondly, begin deployments.
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  Speaker 2: Thank you so much.
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  Speaker 1: The perspective of the IFP as we move into day
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  Speaker 1: one of counting.
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  Speaker 2: There will be another day.
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  Speaker 1: We thank Nkuleko Lengwa, national spokesperson for the IFP.