DURBAN, Monday 21 September 2026 — IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa has promised to assess the performance of the party’s mayors within their first 100 days in office, reduce unnecessary outsourcing and prioritise infrastructure maintenance as the party intensifies its campaign for KwaZulu-Natal municipalities ahead of the 4 November local government elections.
Hlabisa set out the commitments before supporters at the 12,000-seat Princess Magogo Stadium in KwaMashu, north of Durban, placing municipal competence, financial controls and service delivery at the centre of the Inkatha Freedom Party‘s local-government offer.
The rally is particularly relevant to the contest for eThekwini, where the IFP is seeking to expand its representation amid an increasingly fragmented contest involving the MK Party, ANC, DA, EFF and other parties.
The commitments are election promises and their implementation would depend on the councils the IFP controls or participates in after November.
Mayors to face 100-day assessment
Hlabisa said IFP mayors would be assessed during their first 100 days in office.
The party would deploy leaders it regarded as competent and use the early review period to assess whether municipal administrations were meeting its governance commitments.
The proposal places an explicit performance benchmark on the party’s mayoral deployments at a time when instability among mayors and senior municipal officials has become a recurring feature of local government.
The IFP already governs a number of KwaZulu-Natal municipalities and is campaigning to increase that footprint.
How any 100-day assessment would operate — including the precise performance criteria and consequences for mayors who fall short — has not yet been detailed publicly.
Maintenance before crisis
Hlabisa said IFP-led municipalities would place greater emphasis on preventative infrastructure maintenance.
He argued that councils should repair and maintain infrastructure before failures develop into larger service-delivery crises.
Residents would be given online, telephone and ward-based channels to report problems including burst pipes, water leaks, refuse-collection failures and broken streetlights.
The party also promised reference numbers allowing residents to track reported faults.
Those commitments target some of the most persistent complaints confronting municipalities nationally, including unreliable water supply, deteriorating roads, electricity interruptions and slow responses to reported faults.
IFP promises less outsourcing
Hlabisa also said IFP municipalities would seek to reduce what the party considers unnecessary outsourcing.
The party wants municipalities to develop greater internal capacity to perform functions rather than routinely relying on external contractors.
The proposal could have implications for municipal procurement and staffing if implemented.
Hlabisa did not propose eliminating contractors altogether, and municipalities would remain bound by procurement, labour and financial-management legislation.
The IFP instead framed the commitment as an attempt to retain skills and spending capacity inside municipal administrations where this is practical.
Traditional leaders form part of governance offer
Traditional leadership also featured prominently in Hlabisa’s programme.
He said traditional and Khoisan leaders should receive greater administrative, technical and financial support and should participate more directly in decisions affecting rural communities.
The issue is particularly significant in KwaZulu-Natal, where large numbers of residents live in areas under traditional authorities while simultaneously receiving municipal services from elected local government.
The relationship between municipalities and traditional leadership has long involved questions about land administration, development planning and the delivery of infrastructure.
The IFP has historically drawn substantial support from rural KwaZulu-Natal and has maintained close political links with traditional leadership structures.
Local businesses and spaza economy targeted
Hlabisa said IFP municipalities would prioritise local enterprise and employment.
He also promised measures aimed at “securing the spaza shop economy for locals”.
Municipalities can regulate businesses through zoning, trading permits, health requirements and municipal by-laws, but immigration, citizenship and many aspects of business regulation remain national competencies.
Any municipal programme would therefore have to operate within national law and constitutional protections.
The IFP’s emphasis reflects the increasing prominence of migration, township commerce and informal trading in the 2026 election campaign.
eThekwini is a major test
The campaign has particular importance in eThekwini, the province’s largest municipality and one of the principal metropolitan battlegrounds on 4 November.
Recent polling has differed significantly on the precise balance between the MK Party, DA, ANC and IFP, but broadly indicates that the metro could again produce a fragmented council.
That creates two possible routes to influence for the IFP.
A sufficiently strong result could put it into contention for leadership of governing arrangements, while a smaller but strategically placed caucus could become important in post-election coalition negotiations.
The IFP is competing in a province where the emergence of the MK Party has substantially changed the political balance since the 2021 municipal elections.
KwaZulu-Natal contest has been transformed
The 2026 municipal election is the first local-government election since the MK Party emerged as a major electoral force.
That has placed additional pressure on both the ANC and IFP in KwaZulu-Natal.
The IFP nevertheless enters the election with an established municipal base and experience governing local councils.
Hlabisa’s strategy at the KwaMashu rally was to contrast that governing experience with promises of tighter mayoral accountability and more responsive municipal systems.
The approach also allows the party to frame the election around practical local-government performance rather than only national political alignments.
November result will determine reach of programme
Hlabisa’s commitments will ultimately be tested municipality by municipality.
Where the IFP wins outright control, it will have greater freedom to implement its proposed mayoral reviews and administrative reforms.
Where councils are hung, implementation will depend on coalition agreements and negotiations with other parties.
That distinction is especially important in eThekwini.
No mayoral candidate can implement a programme without sufficient council support, and the city’s next administration could again depend on agreements between parties that campaigned against one another.
For the IFP, the KwaMashu rally therefore served two purposes: setting out the standards it says its own mayors will face, and presenting the policies it could carry into coalition negotiations if voters once again return fragmented councils on 4 November.
