Celebrations as Ward control changes hands

The Inkatha Freedom Party is celebrating after winning a fiercely contested by-election in Ulundi on Wednesday thus taking control of the previously NFP ward where the President of the NFP, Mrs Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi resides and vote.

“The election result shows that the IFP, with its limited resources, can defeat the ANC and the NFP combined because it has the confidence of the people. It certainly is a sweet victory considering all the resources and time that both the NFP and the ANC invested. The ANC sent its National Minister, Naledi Pandor and her NFP Deputy, Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi to led an imbizo in Ulundi to raise awareness about science and technology just before the by-election. We realised that this was a plot to canvas for the by-election. But the people of Ulundi are intelligent and were not going to allow themselves to be fooled,” said IFP National Chairperson, Mr Blessed Gwala.

“We don’t take for granted the confidence our people continue to demonstrate in the IFP and commit to redouble our efforts in working for them even after the 2016 municipal elections. We are grateful to all the people who came out once again to cast their vote for the IFP, thus entrenching democracy in our country,” continued Mr Gwala.

“The IFP has noted with grave concerns the mischievous behaviour by the KwaZulu-Natal Provincial MECs who were using public funds to woo voters in Mooi River ahead of the by-election. MEC of Social Development, Weziwe Thusi distributed food parcels in Nyamvubu to woo voters and MEC of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs, Nomusa Dube-Ncube visited Rocks Drift where she publicly campaigned for ANC candidates but under the guise of a government event. It is no wonder then that provincial departments are annually recording irregular and unauthorised expenditure running into millions of rand,” concluded Mr Gwala.

The IFP demands full disclosure on exactly how much has been budgeted from provincial department funds for these so-called “service delivery” projects before the by-elections that took place in Mooi River.