SOUTH AFRICA: INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY (IFP) LEADER CHIEF MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI MAKES LAST-MINUTE BID FOR SUPPORT IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS.

Record ID: 460780

  • Title: SOUTH AFRICA: INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY (IFP) LEADER CHIEF MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI MAKES LAST-MINUTE BID FOR SUPPORT IN LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS.
  • Date: 30th October 1995
  • Summary: JOHANNESBURG AND SOWETO TOWNSHIP, SOUTH AFRICA (OCTOBER 30, 1995) (REUTERS TELEVISION - ACCESS ALL) JOHANNESBURG 1. GV EXT. LIBRARY GARDENS/CROWD OF INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY (IFP) SUPPORTERS, IFP FLAG/VARIOUS OF SUPPORTERS SINGING AND DANCING, CHILDREN (4 SHOTS) 0.18 2. SLV SUPPORTERS WEARING IFP T-SHIRTS AND WAVING IFP
  • Embargoed: 14th November 1995 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: JOHANNESBURG AND SOWETO TOWNSHIP, SOUTH AFRICA
  • City:
  • Country: South Africa
  • Reuters ID: LVAB3W4BBZZYBLH68Q5GT99GI4VF
  • Story Text: Inkatha Freedom Party leader Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi made a last-minute bid for support in South Africa's local government elections on Monday (October 30) when he addressed a rally in downtown Johannesburg.

    During his speech, Buthelezi used the country's chronic crime problem as a platform for criticism of the African National Congress (ANC)-led government.

    Also on Monday, in Soweto township the police and army publically flexed their muscle with a huge drive-through the streets intended as a show of force in the war against crime in the area.

    Residents cheered the convoy of police and defence force vehicles, clearly demonstrating a change in attitude towards the police which under the apartheid-government was traditionally hostile.

    But as the convoy drove through Soweto, Buthelezi told his supporters it was not central Government that would solve the crime problem. He claimed centralised management of police was a failure which had turned the country to lawlessness and organised crime.

    Buthelezi further criticised the ANC, saying the party was not leading South Africa towards freedom or prosperity.

    It was for the people to decide whether to wait a few years until it would be totally clear the ANC would not fulfil its promises or rather to choose to create an alternative to the ANC's power which would work towards freedom and prosperity, he added.

    Although there will not be a municipal election in Buthelezi's home province Kwazulu Natal until March next year, Buthelezi left his constituency to promote his party in other parts of the country.

    The elections, the final step to post-apartheid democracy following last year's national and provincial polls which brought black majority rule, are for thousands of representatives on transitional metropolitan, local and rural councils.

    The councils will remain "transitional" until the country's definitive post-apartheid constitution is in place by 1999, following which fresh elections will be held.

    The main contesting parties are President Nelson Mandela's ANC, the former ruling National Party of Deputy President F.W. de Klerk, the Zulu-based Inkatha Freedom Party of Buthelezi, the radical black Pan Africanist Congress, the right-wing white Conservative Party and the right-wing white Freedom Front.

    A number of smaller parties and regional and local groups are also taking part.


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