IFP: sources

Every fact on the IFP page with its full citation: the document, the page or section, and the date. The dates things were last checked live here rather than on the page itself. Candidates for the 4 November 2026 election are on the IEC’s certified candidate lists and the party’s website.

Leader shown: Velenkosini Fiki Hlabisa, President, since August 2019. Source: President Hlabisa Takes IFP Five-point Manifesto on Jobs, Service Delivery and Clean Governance to Three..., 13 October 2026

Founded: 21 March 1975. Source: Our History, 1975 entry: '21 March' and 'A group of patriotic South Africans, under the leadership of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, gather at KwaNzimela in KwaZulu and...

The header tiles use the IEC results and the offices listed under Results and offices below.

What it promises

Manifesto shown: Local Government Elections Manifesto 2026: Partner With Us to Build Stronger Municipalities (launched 20 September 2026 at Princess Magogo Stadium, KwaMashu, Durban (eThekwini), KwaZulu-Natal; 25 pages).

The five are the first five items of the first list of the manifesto's own commitments, leaving aside any list inside a foreword or leader's message, in the manifesto's own order. Capitals and line breaks in the printed list are normalised and a colon added between each heading and its one-line description. Taken from 'Our Five Commitments to You', contents page (p. 2); the same five open the manifesto's five sections (pp. 6, 10, 14, 18 and 22). Capitals and line breaks in the printed list are normalised and a colon added.. The short heading on each commitment is the site’s plain-language label; the quoted words are the manifesto’s own.

Where it stands

Water and electricity

No published position found in the documents checked, as at 13 October 2026, on: Unpaid household electricity debts should be collected, not cancelled.; Eskom's older coal power stations should close on their planned dates.

Housing and land

No published position found in the documents checked, as at 13 October 2026, on: The law should make it quicker to remove people who have recently moved onto land without permission.

Crime and policing

Foreign nationals

Jobs, grants and tax

No published position found in the documents checked, as at 13 October 2026, on: Yearly increases to the national minimum wage should be no more than about the rate of inflation.; Municipalities should employ their security guards, cleaners and other contract workers directly, rather than through contractors.

Councils and government

No published position found in the documents checked, as at 13 October 2026, on: When awarding tenders, municipalities should keep giving extra points to black-owned businesses.; A party should need at least 1% of the vote to get a seat on a council.; Parties should be required by law to make women at least half of their candidates.; The Western Cape should hold a referendum on whether to become an independent country.

National questions

No published position found in the documents checked, as at 13 October 2026, on: The school's governing body should have the final say on the language the school teaches in.; Government should end race-based measures such as BEE in jobs, contracts and benefits.

Where it leans and party similarity

The dials and the radar use the positions listed above; each dial is the average of the party’s positions on its statements. Statements behind each dial: Economy: 6 of 7 statements; Services: 3 of 4 statements; Redistribution: 3 of 6 statements; Order and borders: 3 of 4 statements; Where power sits: 2 of 4 statements.

Party similarity is scored the way the quiz scores a person, on the statements where both parties have a published position: FF Plus: 14 shared statements; ActionSA: 16 shared statements; DA: 18 shared statements; PA: 12 shared statements; ANC: 18 shared statements; MK: 14 shared statements; EFF: 16 shared statements.

Results

National elections: share of the national ballot. Local elections: share of the proportional-representation ballot across all municipalities.

2024 provincial vote

Source: IEC 2024 Provincial Election, Results Report - Eastern Cape

Provincial legislature seats in 2024: 16 across the nine legislatures.

Offices

Offices as at 13 October 2026. Mayoralties may change after the 4 November 2026 local election; this page is updated once the new councils have met.

In its own words

The site applies no ideology label of its own; the quotation is the party’s own description of itself, from its founding document, constitution or values page.

Source: Why IFP?, heading 'Why we are needed'

Facts

Funding

Totals, April 2021 to March 2025: public funding R70.9 million; declared donations R59.6 million.

Parties must tell the IEC about any donor who gives more than R100,000 a year (R200,000 a year since August 2025). Smaller gifts are not made public. Parties with seats in Parliament or a provincial legislature also receive public money from the Represented Political Parties' Fund (renamed the Political Representatives Fund in 2024), shown as public funding. Neither figure is the party's total income. The 2024/25 year is the latest covered by an IEC annual report; the IEC's quarterly reports for April 2025 onwards are on the IEC's political funding page, and these figures are updated when the next annual report appears.

Reports: Political Party Funding 2022 Annual Report, 1 April 2021 to 31 March 2022; IEC Political Party Funding Annual Report for 2022/23, as reported by Cape Times/Sunday Independent...; Political Party Funding Annual Report 2024, 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024; Political Funding Report 2025, financial year ended 31 March 2025; IEC quarterly disclosure statements Q1 to Q4 2022/23.

Note: the 2022/23 public funding figure is as the press reported it from the IEC's annual report, to one decimal place in millions, because that report could not be opened, so the four-year total may be out by up to R100,000; the 2022/23 donations figure is the sum of the IEC's four quarterly statements.