ULUNDI. The Inkhatha Freedom Party have announced their decision to postpone leadership elections until October, reportedly to ensure that party President Mangosuthu Buthelezi can spend at least another three months in his jodhpurs astride the dead horse he has been flogging since 1975.
Buthelezi’s party won as much as 10 percent of the vote in the 1994 elections, but since then the party has declined steadily.
Over the years attempts to make the party more relevant have seen Buthelezi employ a number of tactics, including changing his name from Gatsha to Mangosuthu.
In the 1990′s he opened up about his diabetes in an attempt to win the sympathy vote, while some ten years later he followed the example of KZN rival Amichand Rajbansi and tried out a new hair cut.
In 2008 his attempts to rally the IFP behind the slogan ’100% Zulu Boy’ failed when Jacob Zuma’s supporters made the phrase their own.
But a spokesperson for Buthelezi said the 82 year-old party leader planned to spend the three months before the election dreaming up new ways of returning the party from the political abyss to the sidelines of mainstream politics.
Party spokesperson, Danie Darko, said, “Our options include forming an alliance with anyone who wants to form an alliance with us.”
Asked what other options there were, he said the IFP’s top scientists were working frantically behind the scenes in an attempt to invent time travel.
“Once we do that, we can go back to the 1960′s, get Mangosuthu a conscience and have him spend some proper time in jail.
“Now that he understands the political value of 27 years behind bars, he really regrets selling out his people for a fancy hut in Ulundi and truck load of SADF surplus weapons.”
But, he said, if Buthelezi still didn’t fancy going the Mandela and Sobukwe route, then they could just travel back to the heady days of the 1980′s and do it all again.
