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When I travel outside KwaZulu Natal, as I so often do, and speak to 
people about the IFP's by-election victories in Mtubatuba, in Ulundi, 
Nongoma, Nqutu, Umtshezi and uPhongolo, there is an understanding that 
the IFP is gaining pace and support. The sheer volume of our victories 
is enough to prove that in the present political climate of 
uncertainty and disillusionment, many South Africans are returning to 
the principles, vision and hope of the IFP.

Nevertheless, outside of KwaZulu Natal, it is not always immediately 
evident to people what the IFP's victories really mean. I was 
therefore thrilled with Wednesday's by-election results, because when 
I tell people the IFP won Nkandla, everyone smiles. Everyone 
understands the significance of the IFP taking President Jacob Zuma's 
hometown with a very convincing 55% victory.

Nkandla, the hometown of the ANC's President, has been in the 
spotlight for months as South Africans raised questions about the 
State's exorbitant expenditure on upgrading the President's home, just 
as his term of office is drawing to an end. But it seems everyone 
considers Nkandla the litmus test of President Jacob Zuma's 
leadership. And the test is showing high levels of acidity.

Indeed, in my travels this week, I heard some very astute observations 
from one ordinary South African who called themselves a "disappointed 
ANC supporter". He spoke of the lack of progress by the ANC in 
fulfilling all their electoral promises, and asked why, in a 
democratic country, there is still such vast inequality. The 
inequality he referred to is not racial, but economic.

He expressed enthusiasm for all that Inkatha had done to build schools 
and clinics while we struggled to overthrow Apartheid. But he could 
not understand why the ANC, with all the country's money at its 
disposal, have not built even half that number of schools over 18 
years of democracy. Why, he asked, do the children of political 
leaders go to private schools, while rural children walk for 
kilometres to attend a school with no toilets?

"In the rural areas, we are not worried about houses," he said, "Our 
concern is for roads, electricity and water. We cannot go to the city 
and pull electricity back to the rural area. We cannot help ourselves 
in this. We just have to wait for Government."

Referring to the ANC's tendency to roll into town just before an 
election, and quickly deliver a few services before disappearing 
again, he said, "They are cruel to us."

I was touched by his words, because it is indeed "cruel" to give a 
suffering people a bit of hope when there is no intention of doing 
more or doing better. When he spoke about the families of political 
leaders going to private hospitals while poor people only have 
community clinics, he said, quite succinctly, "They are giving us a 
poison." Are they saying, he asked, that the rich can live, but the 
poor must just die?

Clearly, ordinary South Africans are very worried about our country. 
So is the IFP.

In the Western Cape, a former prison guard lamented that when he 
worked for Correctional Services in 1998 under the IFP's Minister Ben 
Skosana, there was a degree of order and respect for authority within 
prisons, which eroded dramatically over time. Whereas prisoners used 
to make their beds by roll-call and stand waiting to be counted, 
warders are now treated with utter contempt and little is done by the 
prisoners in their own day-to-day upkeep.

He remembers how prisoners used to prepare and serve meals within the 
prison. But under the ANC's leadership this function was taken over by 
a private company with a lucrative, though controversial, tender. 
Prisoners are now left to their own devises. I cannot help but think 
of the old saying that idle hands are the devil's playground.

Wherever I go, people talk about corruption within our ANC-led 
Government. The Coalition Against Corruption formed by opposition 
parties in Parliament has made a big impact on people, who often speak 
to me about corruption being at the heart of our country's battle with 
crime.

The same gentleman who called the ANC "cruel", refuses to believe that 
crime is caused by poverty. "Look at Zimbabwe," he says, "the people 
are poor, but there is no crime. Even the police don't carry guns. 
Because their government is straight." Whether or not his facts are 
right, his sentiments are obvious. Crime prospers in South Africa 
because our leadership is corrupt.

The shadow of corruption has darkened the ANC's door to such an extent 
that the President's own people reject his Party at the polls. Perhaps 
it is time the ANC started listening to the people, rather than trying 
to spin-doctor their way out of every scandal, every question and 
every debate on the President's leadership.

I listen to people wherever I go because, more often than not, 
ordinary people have extraordinary things to say. Of course, at times 
people say ridiculous things, like the NFP's leader did this week when 
the IFP took Hlabisa from her party in a by-election. She immediately 
complained that she knows her rivals import people into by-election 
wards to vote, which, ironically, is precisely what the NFP was 
exposed for doing in Nongoma three months ago.

The IFP's victories in Mtubatuba, Ulundi, Nongoma, Nqutu, Umtshezi, 
uPhongolo, Hlabisa, KwaMashu and now Nkandla are testimony to the fact 
that the IFP is listening to the people. South Africa's people are 
asking for a return to sound principles, ethical leadership and clear 
vision. They remember the IFP as the repository of all that is good 
about politics, and are strengthening our hand once again.

How often did we hear people say, after 2009, that the IFP lost ground 
because traditional Zulu voters, seeing the chance to get a Zulu into 
the Presidency for the first time, switched to the ANC? What will they 
say now that President Zuma's own people are switching to the IFP? If 
it is just a case of people coming home, the IFP is sure to grow in 
leaps and bounds.

But I believe there is something stronger afoot. There is a 
groundswell of concerned South Africans looking to put their support 
in a party they can trust. Not based on promises or spin-doctoring, 
but on a solid record of 37 years both in governance and opposition. 
The IFP has a significant role to play in this country's future. That 
is the message coming out of one by-election after the next.

But before we move on to the next by-election, let me say again that 
the IFP has taken Nkandla. Because I enjoy seeing people smile.

I also want to thank the community of KwaMashu for their patience and 
calm under very trying circumstances, and for their support for the 
IFP which kept Councillor Themba Xulu's seat within the party he loved.