National Freedom Party headed straight for the scrapheap of SA politics

“The fact of the matter is we will never regain the relationship we had with the IFP leaders and it’s time for us to move forward ” — Victoria Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi, January 17 2011.

If reports are to be believed, those words signalled an intention by the embittered and isolated, though massively popular, IFP national chair Victoria Zanele (VZ) kaMagwaza-Msibi to form her own movement. A newspaper report during the week suggested the new party would be called the National Freedom party, a lovely, and surely deliberate, dig at the Inkatha Freedom Party.

The sad thing though is that however popular VZ will be initially, especially in her northern KwaZulu-Natal stronghold, we have all seen this story before. Massively popular rising star has run-ins with party hierarchy, they stand their ground until something has to give, then when the situation is about to explode, ride the wave of popular support into a new party built around them.

The United Democratic Movement, the National Democratic Convention, the Independent Democrats, Peter Marais’ New Labour Party all started off promising with mass support for the leader at the launch but when time came to provide its stern test, all have been found wanting.

And it is for a simple reason: you cannot sustain a political movement on the basis of an aggrieved personality. It may be enough for the temporary high of being seen to stick one to the establishment but it is not sufficient on its own to build a movement people can buy into. Politics is about ideologies, agendas, policies and a track record. It is about resonating with people on their needs and not their personal feelings for oneself.

The IFP and the PAC, both ANC splinter movements, sustained themselves for so long, before their recent wane, because they sold an ideology that appealed to people at the time. The PAC was militant and strongly pro-black, the IFP all about Zulu nationalism and conservative traditional values. Rightly or wrongly, it was a valid ideology that could resonate with people.

Bantu Holomisa, Ziba Jiyane and Patricia de Lille are all blessed with excellent skills of leadership and selling an idea built around themselves. Yet their parties have all floundered. The UDM exists as a waning regional opposition group, Jiyane’s Nadeco barely exists beyond its name, and De Lille has thrown in her lot with Madam Zille.

The more successful examples of individuals using their mass appeal and cause-célèbre status to constructive political effect have been those such as President Jacob Zuma who fought for change within the ANC and used the great monolith as the base to drive his aspirations. Zuma understood that when it comes to making key decisions, South Africans are a conservative loyal bunch, rightly or wrongly, so when he could have left the ANC with tons of supporters, he instead sought to oust his rival, get the ANC top job and use the party to rehabilitate his image and career.

The IFP is a strong, identifiable brand, though one that is fading in terms of popularity. VZ would bring new energy to the party, even if she ultimately lost a leadership battle, the IFP would have no choice but to transform. As is, it can choose to close ranks ever tighter, while watching her diminish into the obscurity of regional politics.

Post-Polokwane and the fine example of grassroots democracy that it was, others in the ANC sought to branch out and build a movement based on collective disgruntlement. You may have heard of them. They were last seen having chest-thumping silverback confrontations on conference stages while their supporters re-enacted the latter chapters of Lord of the Flies before them. Clearly not coping, that lot.

This blog first appeared on www.newstime.co.za