15 October 2009

The Inkatha Freedom Party has hailed the Constitutional Court's verdict which rendered the KwaZulu-Natal Elimination and Prevention of Re-Emergence of Slums Act 6 of 2007 invalid. IFP Spokesperson in eThekwini Joshua Mazibuko said:

"We salute the Constitutional Court for playing its role to protect the powerless from the tyranny of the powerful.

"The IFP is on record having opposed this law from its inception for it sought to resurrect the old apartheid-tactics where the regime would use its powers to bulldoze the disenfranchised and the impotent out of the "civilised white areas." We did not expect a democratic government which claims commitment to human rights to promulgate such a law.

"Rather than resorting to strong-arm tactics, the government must devise strategies to grow the economy and empower the multitudes of the poorest with skills so that they will transform from being the consumers to creators of wealth; and from being job-seekers to job-creators. It is only in such conditions that our people will afford to develop and upgrade themselves out of shack areas. Draconian laws are not the answer."

Issued by:

M. Joshua Mazibuko

EThekwini IFP Spokesperson:               072 927 0993