News24 | ‘We’re going to tackle it very aggressively’: Hlabisa ramps up IFP rhetoric on immigration

IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa has doubled down on immigration policies on the campaign trail.

@vote_ifp/X

• IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa insisted the party is united on immigration despite public divisions between senior leaders, speaking at a Kliptown, Soweto, campaign stop.
• Hlabisa denied preliminary coalition talks with the MKP, but News24 understands the parties met after the 2024 elections and earlier this year.
• The IFP’s anti-immigration rhetoric has sharpened since founder Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s death.
• For more political news, follow News24 Politics.

The IFP is resolute in its contentious immigration policies, with party president Velenkosini Hlabisa doubling down on the issue while on the campaign trail in Kliptown, Soweto, on Tuesday.

Hlabisa, who is also the cooperative governance and traditional affairs minister, was responding to questions about differences that have played out in public between high-ranking party leaders over the party’s new immigration policy and the enforcement of laws.

News24 recently analysed the IFP’s sharply escalating anti-immigration rhetoric after the death of founder Mangosuthu Buthelezi, whose 2019 plea for calm during xenophobic attacks was heckled by his own supporters.

Its 2024 manifesto dedicated a full point to immigration – calling for border walls, SA National Defence Force deployment, and bans on businesses employing undocumented migrants – a marked departure from Buthelezi’s moderate stance.

The hardening has emboldened internal actors, with the IFP’s Inkosi LangaLibalele Mayor Mduduzi Myeza marching alongside the anti-immigration group March and March, and eThekwini deputy mayoral candidate Sizwe “Mavava” Sikhakhane accusing KwaZulu-Natal Premier Thami Ntuli of damaging the party’s image by requesting army deployment during Durban unrest.

READ | Soyiso Maliti: KZN premier caught out of step with IFP’s swing on migration policy

While Hlabisa backed Sikhakhane, he also noted that Ntuli, in calling for army deployment, was correctly “responding to a situation” and ensuring there is no violence.

“The premier still maintains today: ‘Engangeni ngesango iyafohla’ (He who does not enter through the gate is breaking in). He has not changed. That is the view of the IFP.”

Hlabisa added that Myeza, Sikhakhane and Ntuli all agree that foreign nationals must leave the country if they do not have the required documentation.

He said:

The IFP is on record in 2021, 2024 and 2026 manifestos, and the manifestos are clear. We stand on one point: The IFP believes that the foreign nationals in South Africa without their documentation must be deported.

“We do not need people who do not have specialised skills in South Africa. A specialised skill person must have papers. An asylum seeker is someone who leaves their country for political and religious reasons as well as wars relating to their race.”

He added that asylum seekers should only be fleeing from the neighbouring countries.

📍 SOWETO CAMPAIGN TRAIL | 20 OCTOBER 2026

IFP President, Hon. Velenkosini Hlabisa, MP, will visit Soweto tomorrow for a house handover and door-to-door community engagements.

🏠 09h00: House handover — Meadowlands
🚶 11h00: Door-to-door — Kliptown#IFP #Soweto #LGE2026… pic.twitter.com/vMN198duzo

— #VoteIFP (@vote_ifp) October 20, 2026

The IFP is aligned with the MK Party (MKP) and anti-immigrant organisation March and March on immigration. These organisations have a significant presence in KwaZulu-Natal.

“We are going to be on the forefront. Elections must come and go – we are going to tackle this matter on immigration very aggressively in terms of intensifying the issue of people who are not documented before it explodes. They must be taken back to their countries to ensure that services are reserved for the people of South Africa,” Hlabisa said.

Meanwhile, a single source told News24 that the IFP recently had preliminary talks with the MKP about possible coalitions.

This question was put to MKP spokesperson Sifiso Mahlangu at the weekend, but he had not responded at the time of writing.

READ | KZN premier defends army deployment as IFP infighting erupts after Durban unrest

Hlabisa denied there were talks, saying: “Coalitions have come. It’s a reality. After elections, once we have received the results, we will analyse them and talk coalitions. But I must place it on record: There are no negotiations that have started – none!”

News24 understands that the IFP and MKP met after the elections and earlier this year, when the National Freedom Party (NFP) threatened to pull out of the provincial coalition.

Before the May 2024 election, Hlabisa told News24 the IFP “would be mad” if it went into a coalition with the ANC, but the IFP ended up working with the ANC in both the government of national unity (GNU) and the government of provincial unity in KwaZulu-Natal, where there is a power-sharing agreement with the DA and the NFP.

News24 asked Hlabisa about the service delivery pact the party had with the DA, which covered municipalities in KwaZulu-Natal. In addition to this pact, as well as the Moonshot Pact, the IFP and the DA also had an understanding about which wards they would not contest in KwaZulu-Natal.

“The IFP is going to contest the elections alone, not in a pact. We are contesting every political party, even our partners in the GNU. We are campaigning against them,” Hlabisa said.

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