Date: 10/01/2004
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs
Title: Buthelezi: ID public awareness meeting
ID PUBLIC AWARENESS MEETING ADDRESS BY MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI, MP, MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS, Nafcoc Centre, Tshwane, 10 January 2004
Today is an important day because with our presence at this meeting we underscore the importance of the election day. We have fought very hard to give all South Africans the right to vote to choose a government of their own liking. Today we are here to send the word out to encourage South Africans not to give up the right to vote, which we fought so hard to achieve. If people wish to maintain the power to exercise their right to vote they must register and they must register now, as voters in the election roll. If people are not registered as voters on the voters' roll, they may not vote. This is a simple concept and yet many South Africans have not fully appreciated its importance.
In order to register on the voters' roll South Africans need to have an identity document (ID) issued by my Department of Home Affairs, which must be a document with a bar code. Some people still have IDs that do not have a bar code. As the Minister of Home Affairs I carry the residual responsibility to ensure the proper and successful holding of the elections. The actual responsibility for the running of all aspects of the election lies in the Electoral Commission (IEC). Mindful of my own responsibilities, I have instructed my Department of Home Affairs to do everything that is possible to empower all South Africans to become voters and exercise their right to vote.
To this end, under my instructions, my department has developed extensive programmes to enable all those who wish to have a bar coded ID, to get one on time to register as voters. There are no excuses for those who do not register. However, I can only bring the horse to the water and cannot force it to drink. In the end if certain South Africans do not feel the responsibility to exercise their right to vote, nobody can force them to get a bar coded ID, register and vote. However, on an occasion such as this one, we wish to impress on them that voting at the next elections is going to be a most important moment for all of us. It is not only important to them but it is also important to their neighbours and to all other South Africans. Anyone who does not vote is not only letting himself down but is letting everyone else down.
It is the responsibility of South Africans to choose their Government. On the day of elections people have the right to fire any government they wish. Many people do not understand that they have in their hands the power to make anyone the new president of South Africa if they so choose and to change the government of the day into another one. On election day the people assume their positions as bosses of all representatives and their power is unlimited. They have the power to hire and fire any government they wish. If the people do not exercise this power and do not exercise it well, they have only themselves to blame if the government that they get does not satisfy their needs and aspirations. If you wish to have a government of your liking, vote for it. If you do not vote you will get the government of someone else's liking.
Later this year we are going to hold our third general elections after the first one we held on 27 April 1994 and the one we held in July 1999. Many people wonder why after they have gone twice to vote they should vote for a third time. Voting is the time when they hold their government accountable and with their vote they give the government its report card. If people are satisfied with the government they have had so far, by voting for it again they have the opportunity of making their voice heard and expressing their pleasure with it. However, if people are dissatisfied with the government of the day and feel that the full measure of their needs and expectations have not been met, they should avoid making the mistake of not voting. Many people feel that the way they ought to express their displeasure with their government is that of not voting. If they do so our democracy fails because they refuse to make their voice heard and their vote count. Those who express their displeasure of the government of the day by not voting are jeopardising the many gains our democracy has achieved with so many sufferings. In a democracy the way people hold accountable a government which has not lived up to their expectation, is by voting for another political party which, in their opinion, is better qualified and is more reliable to fulfil their needs and dreams. A democracy works also on the basis of protest votes but dies when there are protest non-votes.
The first election we held on 27 April 1994 marked a decisive moment that took us from a history of oppression, conflict and neglect to the possibility of reconstruction, development and freedom to the building of a democratic, non-racial and non-sexist republic based on the will of the people. Our next elections are going to be held within ten years of that historical time and will mark the completion of the first decade of freedom and the beginning of the next. Therefore, the next elections are going to be the moment in which the people of South Africa will need to look back at the past ten years and assess how much has been done, deciding whether they wish for the next ten years to have more of the same, or whether through their vote they wish to begin a new chapter to provide South Africa with something better. It is only through voting that people can make their voice heard and let the world know how they feel. I am not here to tell people how they should vote or to pontificate on how they feel. I am here to implore them to make their voice heard so that their feelings are known, because if their feelings remain unexpressed they are bound to be ignored. This is the time for the people of South Africa to speak up, alas they choose to shut up when their feelings, wants and aspirations are not met.
The IEC has organised a registration weekend for the 24th and 25th of this month. It is essential that anyone who is here today becomes an ambassador of goodwill and carries within their families, workplaces and communities the message that it is of critical importance that everyone is registered so that they can vote. You need to ensure with your spouses, children older than 18, your parents, your cousins, your uncles and aunts, your nieces and nephews, your workers and co-workers, your neighbours and anyone else you know that they are registered. Speak about elections. Ask those you know whether they are registered. Discuss elections. Make the election campaign work because each of you is part and parcel of the great machinery of democracy that must now spring into action with the election campaign. The great themes of politics must now become that which engages people in conversations at their dinner tables, in their workplaces, in queues at taxi ranks, in bars and stadiums. This is not the time to talk about sports or to gossip about friends and enemies. This is the time to talk about politics because the future of South Africa is at stake. It is the South African people who must decide the future of our country and can only do so if they themselves promote real political debates at all levels and within all building blocks of our society.
However, it all begins with registration and everyone must check if their name appears on the voters' roll. If people have not decided what party they would be voting for, they must nonetheless register not to lose the opportunity and possibility to vote. Even if people have not decided whether they will vote at all, or whether they will come out on election day, they must nonetheless register because if they fail to register they will just not have the option to decide to vote if they wish to do so. Register now, decide later who to vote for. It does not matter whether you receive the assistance of a political party to register. Even if a political party helps you to register, you can vote for any other political party. People must realise that their vote is indeed secret and they have the right to change their mind and allegiance until the very moment in which they place the cross in the ballot box. No one has any obligation of allegiance to any political party. The moment of voting is the only time in which every adult South African is indeed totally free to do as he or she pleases. Voting is the only time in which each South African is boss and no one can tell him or her what to do. It is for him or her to choose the party of his choice. People must realise that they have this freedom and that the secrecy of their vote is absolutely impenetrable so that no one under any condition will ever know whom they voted for. Assume your position as boss. Be powerful. Be strong. Register now. Vote for the party of your real choice later.
Elections are the magic moment in which all South Africans are really equal. At that magic time the vote of the poorest person in South Africa counts as much as the vote of the richest person. At the time of election the opinion and viewpoint of the least educated and experienced member of our population is exactly as important as the opinion and view point of our most illustrious political luminaries. On the day of elections everyone is a peer of equal standing. Throughout our society, during all aspects of our daily life equality unfortunately remains but a remote and unfulfilled promise, if not a dream. However, for a brief but critical fleeting moment, which is indeed a destiny determining time, equality in our country becomes total and absolute and we are all equally free because we are all equally worthy, important and powerful. That is the moment of our election.
My department is trying to do its best to fulfil this promise of freedom and equality on election day. We are aware that many people, especially in the rural areas and those who are unemployed are unable to afford the payment of the photograph required for their ID. To ensure their freedom and equality I have instructed my Department of Home Affairs to waive the cost of the photograph and re-issue IDs without exacting such payment until the closure of the voters' registration period. This programme has been ongoing for almost a year and since the beginning of 2003 more than 2,6 million people have applied for their IDs. I have also instructed that mobile units be available to enable the Department of Home Affairs, in partnership with other stakeholders, to reach out to those who are not within the reach of our offices. Mobile units are another means to make the promise of equality more real and more relevant.
We are increasing the number of mobile units. Mobile units have worked hard for long and irregular hours and I have in many instances extended the days in which our services are delivered. We are doing this because we wish to make the promise of equality on election day a reality and to concretise the spirit of placing our customers first on the basis of the principle of Batho Pele. However, this is all useless if the horse who is brought to the water refuses to drink. It is through the initiative of South Africans, who decide to apply for IDs, to register and eventually vote, that the promise of equality can finally be fulfilled. It is our collegial responsibility to ensure that everyone registers and that we can make a quality triumph at least for one day and on one occasion in our country.
It must also be kept in mind that a bar coded ID is something that people need irrespective of elections. It enables South Africans to access other opportunities and services, it is an important document in everybody's life. It is required to apply for and obtain driver's licences, child support grants, foster care grants, disability grants, housing, education, health care, job opportunities, passports and many other services. Therefore, one has the independent obligation and convenience in acquiring a bar coded ID. Now is the time to do it and there is no justification for anyone to be without a bar coded ID. It is essential that people not only apply for IDs, but actually ensure that they go and collect them. Thousands of IDs remain uncollected. I urge all those who have not collected their IDs to do so immediately from the offices in which they applied for them, including the mobile units in cases where people have not changed their residential addresses.
On the strength of our commitment to service delivery, we have entered into a partnership with the Post Office in order to maximise the distribution of IDs to applicants with unserviceable addresses. We will continue to find ways and means to reach out to those who are marginalized and to address the plight of the poor. I have lived all my life amongst the poorest of the poor and I know how hard the conditions are for most South Africans. I have been amongst the people of this country all my life and I have dwelled amongst all our communities including the rich and the poor and all the various ethnic segments of our communities. For the past fifty years I have dedicated my life to serving the people of South Africa and I have met, broken bread with and shared dreams and concerns with each and every one of our communities. It is because of this experience that I know that we need to make an effort to reach out for the poorest of the poor, to ensure that on election day the promise of equality may be fulfilled.
The next election is the time in which our hard won right to vote becomes real. We are committed to ensure that everyone may participate in exercising this right in shaping the future of our country. However, we need everyone's contribution to make this effort a successful one. It is necessary that all those who are gathered here today assist others in registering and that a chain be established in which anyone who understands the importance of the next elections makes somebody else reach the same conclusion and not only registers, but assists somebody else to register and vote. To enable everyone to register I have instructed my department to issue temporary identity certificates for all those who applied for the re-issuing of an ID, or have lost it. Therefore, if you ever had an ID and you no longer have it, you do not need to wait until the new ID is issued for you to register. You must apply now for your new ID and you can immediately register on the voters' roll while you wait for it to be issued. In addition those who applied for the first time for an ID in the past two months, and have not yet received their IDs, are also eligible to apply for a temporary identify certificate where their application has been approved or processed. This will enable even those who are applying for an ID for the first time to register on the voters' roll. This is particularly significant for young people who are just coming of age.
Even people who are not yet 18 but will be 18 on election day, have the right to register on the voters' roll. I urge young people to become protagonists in the making of a new South Africa. In the past young people made a very significant contribution in creating the future of South Africa as they provided real leadership at crucial stages of our liberation struggle. History now demands of young people the same leadership capacity that must now be shown in leading the campaign to acquire IDs and register for the next elections. I call on young people to be the leaders of this campaign and give the example to all South Africans. I hope that special registration campaigns can be organised in schools and universities, because young people have the greatest stake in the outcome of the next elections. The future belongs to them to a much greater extent than it belongs to other people because they have much more to expect from it. The next elections are going to be a destiny determining time and are likely to shape our future more than any other election we have ever held before. Therefore, it is really in the interests of young people to ensure that the next elections are indeed their elections and that the participation of young people becomes more significant than that of any other age group.
My department remains committed to ensuring that the next elections are going to be a success. We will do our best to achieve this goal. I am pleased that the Director-General and I have developed a very strong relationship of mutual respect and are working as a team in the interests of South Africa. Our good relationship bodes well for the success of what our department can do to deliver a successful election. However, in the end it is only the people of South Africa who can deliver a successful election. The final success is in the hands of all those who are gathered here today and in all those whom you may convince to acquire IDs, register and vote. I hope that today can be the beginning of a great campaign driven by the South African people to make the elections a success. May God Almighty bless all of you and inspire you in embracing the grave responsibility that is now placed on all the voters to ensure that South Africa may one day become the land of social stability and economic prosperity, which we firmly believe it can be. May God Bless you and your families and protect you in this great effort.
Issued by: Ministry of Home Affairs
10 January 2004
Source: Ministry of Home Affairs
Title: Buthelezi: ID public awareness meeting
ID PUBLIC AWARENESS MEETING ADDRESS BY MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI, MP, MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS, Nafcoc Centre, Tshwane, 10 January 2004
Today is an important day because with our presence at this meeting we underscore the importance of the election day. We have fought very hard to give all South Africans the right to vote to choose a government of their own liking. Today we are here to send the word out to encourage South Africans not to give up the right to vote, which we fought so hard to achieve. If people wish to maintain the power to exercise their right to vote they must register and they must register now, as voters in the election roll. If people are not registered as voters on the voters' roll, they may not vote. This is a simple concept and yet many South Africans have not fully appreciated its importance.
In order to register on the voters' roll South Africans need to have an identity document (ID) issued by my Department of Home Affairs, which must be a document with a bar code. Some people still have IDs that do not have a bar code. As the Minister of Home Affairs I carry the residual responsibility to ensure the proper and successful holding of the elections. The actual responsibility for the running of all aspects of the election lies in the Electoral Commission (IEC). Mindful of my own responsibilities, I have instructed my Department of Home Affairs to do everything that is possible to empower all South Africans to become voters and exercise their right to vote.
To this end, under my instructions, my department has developed extensive programmes to enable all those who wish to have a bar coded ID, to get one on time to register as voters. There are no excuses for those who do not register. However, I can only bring the horse to the water and cannot force it to drink. In the end if certain South Africans do not feel the responsibility to exercise their right to vote, nobody can force them to get a bar coded ID, register and vote. However, on an occasion such as this one, we wish to impress on them that voting at the next elections is going to be a most important moment for all of us. It is not only important to them but it is also important to their neighbours and to all other South Africans. Anyone who does not vote is not only letting himself down but is letting everyone else down.
It is the responsibility of South Africans to choose their Government. On the day of elections people have the right to fire any government they wish. Many people do not understand that they have in their hands the power to make anyone the new president of South Africa if they so choose and to change the government of the day into another one. On election day the people assume their positions as bosses of all representatives and their power is unlimited. They have the power to hire and fire any government they wish. If the people do not exercise this power and do not exercise it well, they have only themselves to blame if the government that they get does not satisfy their needs and aspirations. If you wish to have a government of your liking, vote for it. If you do not vote you will get the government of someone else's liking.
Later this year we are going to hold our third general elections after the first one we held on 27 April 1994 and the one we held in July 1999. Many people wonder why after they have gone twice to vote they should vote for a third time. Voting is the time when they hold their government accountable and with their vote they give the government its report card. If people are satisfied with the government they have had so far, by voting for it again they have the opportunity of making their voice heard and expressing their pleasure with it. However, if people are dissatisfied with the government of the day and feel that the full measure of their needs and expectations have not been met, they should avoid making the mistake of not voting. Many people feel that the way they ought to express their displeasure with their government is that of not voting. If they do so our democracy fails because they refuse to make their voice heard and their vote count. Those who express their displeasure of the government of the day by not voting are jeopardising the many gains our democracy has achieved with so many sufferings. In a democracy the way people hold accountable a government which has not lived up to their expectation, is by voting for another political party which, in their opinion, is better qualified and is more reliable to fulfil their needs and dreams. A democracy works also on the basis of protest votes but dies when there are protest non-votes.
The first election we held on 27 April 1994 marked a decisive moment that took us from a history of oppression, conflict and neglect to the possibility of reconstruction, development and freedom to the building of a democratic, non-racial and non-sexist republic based on the will of the people. Our next elections are going to be held within ten years of that historical time and will mark the completion of the first decade of freedom and the beginning of the next. Therefore, the next elections are going to be the moment in which the people of South Africa will need to look back at the past ten years and assess how much has been done, deciding whether they wish for the next ten years to have more of the same, or whether through their vote they wish to begin a new chapter to provide South Africa with something better. It is only through voting that people can make their voice heard and let the world know how they feel. I am not here to tell people how they should vote or to pontificate on how they feel. I am here to implore them to make their voice heard so that their feelings are known, because if their feelings remain unexpressed they are bound to be ignored. This is the time for the people of South Africa to speak up, alas they choose to shut up when their feelings, wants and aspirations are not met.
The IEC has organised a registration weekend for the 24th and 25th of this month. It is essential that anyone who is here today becomes an ambassador of goodwill and carries within their families, workplaces and communities the message that it is of critical importance that everyone is registered so that they can vote. You need to ensure with your spouses, children older than 18, your parents, your cousins, your uncles and aunts, your nieces and nephews, your workers and co-workers, your neighbours and anyone else you know that they are registered. Speak about elections. Ask those you know whether they are registered. Discuss elections. Make the election campaign work because each of you is part and parcel of the great machinery of democracy that must now spring into action with the election campaign. The great themes of politics must now become that which engages people in conversations at their dinner tables, in their workplaces, in queues at taxi ranks, in bars and stadiums. This is not the time to talk about sports or to gossip about friends and enemies. This is the time to talk about politics because the future of South Africa is at stake. It is the South African people who must decide the future of our country and can only do so if they themselves promote real political debates at all levels and within all building blocks of our society.
However, it all begins with registration and everyone must check if their name appears on the voters' roll. If people have not decided what party they would be voting for, they must nonetheless register not to lose the opportunity and possibility to vote. Even if people have not decided whether they will vote at all, or whether they will come out on election day, they must nonetheless register because if they fail to register they will just not have the option to decide to vote if they wish to do so. Register now, decide later who to vote for. It does not matter whether you receive the assistance of a political party to register. Even if a political party helps you to register, you can vote for any other political party. People must realise that their vote is indeed secret and they have the right to change their mind and allegiance until the very moment in which they place the cross in the ballot box. No one has any obligation of allegiance to any political party. The moment of voting is the only time in which every adult South African is indeed totally free to do as he or she pleases. Voting is the only time in which each South African is boss and no one can tell him or her what to do. It is for him or her to choose the party of his choice. People must realise that they have this freedom and that the secrecy of their vote is absolutely impenetrable so that no one under any condition will ever know whom they voted for. Assume your position as boss. Be powerful. Be strong. Register now. Vote for the party of your real choice later.
Elections are the magic moment in which all South Africans are really equal. At that magic time the vote of the poorest person in South Africa counts as much as the vote of the richest person. At the time of election the opinion and viewpoint of the least educated and experienced member of our population is exactly as important as the opinion and view point of our most illustrious political luminaries. On the day of elections everyone is a peer of equal standing. Throughout our society, during all aspects of our daily life equality unfortunately remains but a remote and unfulfilled promise, if not a dream. However, for a brief but critical fleeting moment, which is indeed a destiny determining time, equality in our country becomes total and absolute and we are all equally free because we are all equally worthy, important and powerful. That is the moment of our election.
My department is trying to do its best to fulfil this promise of freedom and equality on election day. We are aware that many people, especially in the rural areas and those who are unemployed are unable to afford the payment of the photograph required for their ID. To ensure their freedom and equality I have instructed my Department of Home Affairs to waive the cost of the photograph and re-issue IDs without exacting such payment until the closure of the voters' registration period. This programme has been ongoing for almost a year and since the beginning of 2003 more than 2,6 million people have applied for their IDs. I have also instructed that mobile units be available to enable the Department of Home Affairs, in partnership with other stakeholders, to reach out to those who are not within the reach of our offices. Mobile units are another means to make the promise of equality more real and more relevant.
We are increasing the number of mobile units. Mobile units have worked hard for long and irregular hours and I have in many instances extended the days in which our services are delivered. We are doing this because we wish to make the promise of equality on election day a reality and to concretise the spirit of placing our customers first on the basis of the principle of Batho Pele. However, this is all useless if the horse who is brought to the water refuses to drink. It is through the initiative of South Africans, who decide to apply for IDs, to register and eventually vote, that the promise of equality can finally be fulfilled. It is our collegial responsibility to ensure that everyone registers and that we can make a quality triumph at least for one day and on one occasion in our country.
It must also be kept in mind that a bar coded ID is something that people need irrespective of elections. It enables South Africans to access other opportunities and services, it is an important document in everybody's life. It is required to apply for and obtain driver's licences, child support grants, foster care grants, disability grants, housing, education, health care, job opportunities, passports and many other services. Therefore, one has the independent obligation and convenience in acquiring a bar coded ID. Now is the time to do it and there is no justification for anyone to be without a bar coded ID. It is essential that people not only apply for IDs, but actually ensure that they go and collect them. Thousands of IDs remain uncollected. I urge all those who have not collected their IDs to do so immediately from the offices in which they applied for them, including the mobile units in cases where people have not changed their residential addresses.
On the strength of our commitment to service delivery, we have entered into a partnership with the Post Office in order to maximise the distribution of IDs to applicants with unserviceable addresses. We will continue to find ways and means to reach out to those who are marginalized and to address the plight of the poor. I have lived all my life amongst the poorest of the poor and I know how hard the conditions are for most South Africans. I have been amongst the people of this country all my life and I have dwelled amongst all our communities including the rich and the poor and all the various ethnic segments of our communities. For the past fifty years I have dedicated my life to serving the people of South Africa and I have met, broken bread with and shared dreams and concerns with each and every one of our communities. It is because of this experience that I know that we need to make an effort to reach out for the poorest of the poor, to ensure that on election day the promise of equality may be fulfilled.
The next election is the time in which our hard won right to vote becomes real. We are committed to ensure that everyone may participate in exercising this right in shaping the future of our country. However, we need everyone's contribution to make this effort a successful one. It is necessary that all those who are gathered here today assist others in registering and that a chain be established in which anyone who understands the importance of the next elections makes somebody else reach the same conclusion and not only registers, but assists somebody else to register and vote. To enable everyone to register I have instructed my department to issue temporary identity certificates for all those who applied for the re-issuing of an ID, or have lost it. Therefore, if you ever had an ID and you no longer have it, you do not need to wait until the new ID is issued for you to register. You must apply now for your new ID and you can immediately register on the voters' roll while you wait for it to be issued. In addition those who applied for the first time for an ID in the past two months, and have not yet received their IDs, are also eligible to apply for a temporary identify certificate where their application has been approved or processed. This will enable even those who are applying for an ID for the first time to register on the voters' roll. This is particularly significant for young people who are just coming of age.
Even people who are not yet 18 but will be 18 on election day, have the right to register on the voters' roll. I urge young people to become protagonists in the making of a new South Africa. In the past young people made a very significant contribution in creating the future of South Africa as they provided real leadership at crucial stages of our liberation struggle. History now demands of young people the same leadership capacity that must now be shown in leading the campaign to acquire IDs and register for the next elections. I call on young people to be the leaders of this campaign and give the example to all South Africans. I hope that special registration campaigns can be organised in schools and universities, because young people have the greatest stake in the outcome of the next elections. The future belongs to them to a much greater extent than it belongs to other people because they have much more to expect from it. The next elections are going to be a destiny determining time and are likely to shape our future more than any other election we have ever held before. Therefore, it is really in the interests of young people to ensure that the next elections are indeed their elections and that the participation of young people becomes more significant than that of any other age group.
My department remains committed to ensuring that the next elections are going to be a success. We will do our best to achieve this goal. I am pleased that the Director-General and I have developed a very strong relationship of mutual respect and are working as a team in the interests of South Africa. Our good relationship bodes well for the success of what our department can do to deliver a successful election. However, in the end it is only the people of South Africa who can deliver a successful election. The final success is in the hands of all those who are gathered here today and in all those whom you may convince to acquire IDs, register and vote. I hope that today can be the beginning of a great campaign driven by the South African people to make the elections a success. May God Almighty bless all of you and inspire you in embracing the grave responsibility that is now placed on all the voters to ensure that South Africa may one day become the land of social stability and economic prosperity, which we firmly believe it can be. May God Bless you and your families and protect you in this great effort.
Issued by: Ministry of Home Affairs
10 January 2004
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