Talk:Inkatha Freedom Party

necklacing

The ANC officially condemned necklacing.

It sanctioned violence against the government, not rival oppositionists (though of course such violence happened)

This is not true - the official ANC policy from the 80s was to make South Africa ungovernable by forcing it into a civil war which included attacks on individuals and sanctioned black on black violence.

Inkatha also used violence, and not necessarily just in response to the ANC's violence.

This page could be better...

I would like more information on Gavin Woods personally.

Gavin Woods

I notice that when the name Gavin Woods is clicked, it goes to a water-polo player instead of the MP. How do we remove the link? Or even better, maybe someone should make a page for this man? After a little research, I discovered he also suffers from polio ( http://www.hsf.org.za/publications/focus-issues/issues-21-30/issue-21/interview-with-gavin-woods/ ) so i think it might be an interesting read. Also to put awareness about his involvment in the arms deal scandal? http://www.info.gov.za/issues/procurement/woods.htm —Preceding unsigned comment added by 209.203.22.195 (talk) 13:09, 7 May 2008 (UTC)

Violence

The article notes Nelson Mandela's "Long walk to freedom" as a source, but this book mentions a lot more violence committed by Inkatha against ANC (election workers being"hacked to death").

Would like to see these allegations mentioned in this article.

10 000 Inkatha members butchered in the 80's and 90's

It is on record that over 10 000 Inkatha members, and 0ver 400 leaders were murdered by the ANC, in the 1980's and 1990's as part of the ANC's plans to destroy all political opposition.

The ANC started killing Inkatha members in 1983, and Inkatha members finally started to hit back in 1990. after years of ANC attacks.

ANC has attacked members of all opposition parties in Black areas, includinng IFP, PAC, AZAPO, DA, UDM, ID. They have been to common demoninator in all political violence in Black areas.--Herut 20:22, 14 June 2007 (UTC)

: Then source this allegation!

It won't make it into the article without a credible reference. Wizzy…☎ 16:31, 15 June 2007 (UTC)

Mandela: The Authorised Biography

I am trying to expand this article, mainly focusing on the differences between this book and other accounts (books and otherwise) of South Africa throughout this period. Any comments or suggestions are appreciated on the talk page.BillMasen 13:27, 6 July 2007 (UTC)

BillMasen: here are four books you might consult: Gerhard Mare and Georgina Hamilton, "Appetite for Power: Buthelezi's Inkatha and South Africa"; Gerhard Mare, "Ethnicity and Politics in South Africa"; Robert Morrell, ed., "Political Economy and Identities in KwaZulu-Natal"; Thembisa Waetjen, "Workers and Warriors: Masculinity and the Struggle for Nation in South Africa." Jizungu (talk) 15:41, 24 July 2008 (UTC)

This article violates Wikipedia's Neutrality policy

The article is far from neutral. It is in fact quite tendentious, starting with its opening sentence. (The "Inkatha Freedom Party" was not founded in 1975; as the article itself states, the cultural organization founded by Buthelezi in 1975 was not initially meant as a political party to rival the banned ANC. Inkatha was only transformed into a political party after the ANC and PAC were unbanned in 1990.)

The article goes to great lengths to avoid mentioning the basis of Inkatha's power throughout the peak of its influence: that is, Buthelezi's position as Chief Minister of the Zulu bantustan and his ties to the apartheid state. There are plentiful published, scholarly works that document those ties, by John Wright, Gerhard Mare, Carolyn Hamilton, and many others. (It is not "coincidence" that IFP attacks were tolerated by the police; in much of KwaZulu-Natal, Buthelezi and the IFP had formal ties to the police.) Also plentifully documented are the threats of violence issued by Buthelezi and other high-ranking figures within the IFP, and the role of IFP's organized "impis" in inflicting violence on peaceful township dwellers in the Rand in 1990-1991, to say nothing of the more widespread violence between Inkatha and the "comrades" in Natal in the 1980s. In the context of all this, it is disingenuous to imply, as does this article, that the pro-ANC UDF was the prime instigator of violence while Inkatha advocated non-violence. Jizungu (talk) 19:05, 14 February 2008 (UTC)

Agreed! There should be an explicit mention of the established Third Force involvement in IFP-instigated violence. To quote from the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) report and wikipedia page on the Third Force:

while little evidence exists of a centrally directed, coherent or formally constituted ‘Third Force’, a network of security and ex-security force operatives, frequently acting in conjunction with right-wing elements and/or sectors of the IFP, was involved in actions that could be construed as fomenting violence and which resulted in gross human rights violations, including random and target killings.

Halfsnail (talk) 10:09, 30 September 2008 (UTC)

The History section is clearly biased towards an IFP perspective on the ANC/IFP clashes, but worse, still it cites no sources, doesn't examine the differences in philosophy between the parties and emphasises the clashes to the exclusion of other pertinent developments in the IFP's early history. Arguably the official http://www.ifp.org.za/History/history.htm is more unbiased; it's certainly more useful as reference material. As a bare minimum, the more controversial statements should be referenced. I also removed an unreferenced allegation about ANC funding: if it belongs in Wikipedia at all it belongs in the article on the history of the ANC. Dtellett (talk) 12:29, 28 August 2011 (UTC)

Name?

What does the name "Inkatha" mean?

--91.7.227.122 (talk) 13:20, 2 September 2008 (UTC)

The meaning of "Inkatha"

The name "Inkatha has a deeply symbolic as well as practical meaning. In essence an "Inkatha" is a plaited coil or circle made of straws of grass, placed on the head to carry and alleviate the weight of a heavy burden. It is so powerfully woven together that it does not crumble and break. Neither does it slip and dislodge its burden.

Symbolically, therefore, the IFP feels a keen responsibility towards maintaining political balance and of assisting and protecting people from the heavy social and political burdens that they bear. As the circular shape of an Inkatha represents unity the IFP is committed to ensuring that no matter the diversity of the peoples South Africa becomes one nation [1]

NPOV tagging of 2009 section

I have flagged the "2009" section for WP:NPOV issues because it seems to adopt to a large extent the IFP point of view. Much of the section simply reports what the IFP says happened, and indeed many of the sources are IFP media statements. I also removed one paragraph about Google results for a particular search, which seems to me to be trying to insinuate a conspiracy, and in any case runs up against WP:OR. - htonl (talk) 16:25, 5 December 2013 (UTC)

IFP's Presence in Hostels

Perhaps when speaking about the IFP-ANC conflict, you could mention the presence of IFP in hostels that lay just outside of predominantly ANC townships. These hostels served as bases for the IFP's fight against ANC. Many human rights violations were committed by IFP inhabitants of these hostels, so I feel like it is a relevant topic when discussing the political party. Ginnysomers (talk) 20:05, 10 October 2016 (UTC)

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NPOV

Not being an expert in South African politics I can't fix this myself so I figured I'd just tag it. This page obviously has issues. For a major party, there is an almost exclusive, cherry-picked focus on scandals and section titles like "Worst ever performance"...…. about the year 2009. Ten years ago. --Calthinus (talk) 01:52, 1 February 2019 (UTC)

@Calthinus: Good day. Sorry for the slow response but I have made some improvements to the article in regards to its neutrality. I removed the specific "2009 election" section as it was outdated and biased. Do you have any comments about the current version of the article? LefcentrerightTalk (plz ping) 14:42, 5 April 2020 (UTC)

About ideology

The Inkatha Freedom Party’s program, scope of activities, and influence areas are in line with the characteristics of “localism”. Why should you rollback?周雁棠 (talk) 09:25, 25 May 2019 (UTC)

All ideologies must be sourced! Vif12vf/Tiberius (talk) 14:06, 25 May 2019 (UTC)

Rightwing

Why is Inkatha Freedom Party categorized here as Rightwing. It is a moderate nonracial pluralist party for all South Africans democratic South Africa and is moderate. It would be more accurate to categorize IFP as center right 165.73.24.40 (talk) 19:38, 4 January 2023 (UTC)