Date: 16/03/2004
Source: Inkatha Freedom Party
Title: M Buthelezi:IFP/DA public meeting at Stellenbosch University


It gives me great pleasure to be with the Leader of the Opposition at Stellenbosch University again. For many years I have maintained a longstanding dialogue and relationship with the people of Stellenbosch and with the academic establishment and the community of students of Stellenbosch University. This is a very special place for the whole of South Africa with specific features that must be maintained not only for its own sake, but also for the sake of the whole of our country.

Throughout my life, I have fought for the principle of pluralism, which recognises that our country is rich and strong because we are diverse and different. Diversity is an element of our strength, not a factor of our weakness. This rich diversity should not be leveled down into a bland uniform identity-kit.

For this reason, when the debate arose, I was very vociferous in Cabinet in defending the rights of Stellenbosch University to remain a centre in which Afrikaans is used as the means of instruction. More generally, I have always put forward the notion that institutions of tertiary education, such as Stellenbosch University, should not be under the control of Government, but should rather be autonomous. I have no doubt that the faculties and the students of this University know best how to run this flagship centre of excellence of South Africa without being told what to do and how to do it, by a central government department.

I am saying these things to stress that my presence here today is not coincidental, but stems out of twenty-plus years of commitment to values which are fundamental to our democracy, and the preservation and promotion of an open and pluralistic society in South Africa. We moved from apartheid to democracy, but we have not yet moved from a closed, to an open society. We come from a past in which South African society was very controlled by Government, both in terms of an economic system that had all the classic features of a socialist State, as well as in terms of culture and social activities.

As me moved from apartheid to democracy, the features of social control in government power have not decreased, but have in fact increased at an alarming pace. As you all know, the definition of a totalitarian State is one in which power has the capacity of reaching into the totality of all segments of civil society, including social, cultural and economic activities. The South African State is actively pursuing activities which are bringing the most relevant, social, economic and cultural activities under one single centre of political power and control.

We need to revert from these totalitarian tendencies which have the power of undermining many of the gains of our democracy.

I believe that it is time a new season of freedom in South Africa.

I am deeply concerned that a group of less than one hundred people effectively control vast segments of our social, economic and cultural life, through the philosophy and practice of deployment. Out of the same centre of powers, people are deployed into the parastatals, as heads of private or public corporations, to lead cultural institutions and universities, and even to be in charge of nominally independent constitutional watchdogs established under chapter nine of our Constitution.

Irrespective of their role in their various institutions, these people feel bound to report back to those who have deployed them, which undermines the free and independent dialectics of a truly open and free society.

Modern history teaches us that all positive revolutions start among the youth on the university campuses. I have spoken in the past at Wits University, Natal University and other institutions of learning to inviting the youth to become the engine of a revolution of goodwill to change South Africa.

We need to turn over a new leaf and create in South Africa the hope for a vibrant society, based on the rules of advanced democracy. We must not settle for a second-rate democracy because South Africa deserves better.

For this reason, after spending spent fifty years fighting for democracy and in the service of the people, I felt compelled to form the Coalition for Change with the Leader of the Opposition and my longtime friend, the Honourable Tony Leon, to provide South Africa with a real democratic alternative.

Many people have questioned this endeavour as if it has suddenly came out of the blue. These are people who have little understanding about my life experience, or who have not bothered to research what I have done to promote and protect democracy, and the consistency with which I have relentlessly pursued the same vision.

When I was here thirty-two years ago, in 1972, I expressed my vision for a federal South Africa, in the belief that our democracy needs the benefit of federalism to remain pluralistic and vibrant, and to be protected from the inherent risks of autocracy and totalitarianism. I have pursued the same vision for the past thirty-two years, and I feel that history has proven me to be right in showing that our society can only flourish by increasing the level of democracy and freedom.

Things must change for the better, and it is the responsibility of young people to bring about the positive revolution of goodwill which forces change. I urge the young people not to stand on the sideline for this is the hour when there is a real opportunity to make a difference.

I do not think that any other election in South Africa has ever been as important as the one that will be held in just over thirty days from now. Never before have ordinary men and women had the opportunity of making such a significant difference in shaping our country's future destiny, as people now have at the next elections.

It is for the South African people to decide whether we need to have five more years of the same or if the time has not come to force a change for the better. By joining forces and hands, the Leader of the Opposition and I have created a real alternative for change to take place. South Africa needs a democratic alternative for without a democratic alternative, there is just no alternative. But only the downward spiraling decline that leads towards a one-party State.

Democracy will only flourish when South Africans are given the opportunity of choosing who the next President is going to be. The real test of democracy is not about empowering a victorious majority. If this were the test, all African States have successfully passed it. The real litmus test of democracy, which many countries emerging from liberation have yet to successfully pass, lies in a successful majority relinquishing its power to another majority, without resisting or changing the rules of the game to prevent it.

We have seen how the ruling party has sought to change the rules of the game and tamper with our Constitution, in order to gain a majority over and above what was given to it at the election polls. The Constitutional amendment that enabled political representatives to cross the floor was not immoral and indecent per se, or because of what it provided.

It was immoral and indecent, because it allowed political representatives to change the terms of their electoral mandate, midstream of their term of office. When they were elected, the voters did not know that the representatives could move from one political party to the other, stealing the votes they received and carrying with them their seat.

It is unheard in the democratic world that the rules of an electoral system can be changed retrospectively. Yet it was so pressing for the ANC to gain political control of the Western Cape and KwaZulu Natal, not through the ballot box, but by virtue of a legislative edict, that they had no qualms about tampering with the Constitution.

This is a very sound warning and alarm bell to which the South African people should pay great heed. If our Constitution can be changed at will and at whim, whenever there is political expediency to do so, then none of our freedoms and liberty is really protected. For this reason, it is essential for the survival of our democracy that, at the next elections, the ANC be cut down to a size so that they cannot change the Constitution at will or at whim.

Indeed, it would be extremely beneficial to our democracy if the electoral result were such, that no political party could muster an absolute majority so that the present politics of division could finally be overcome by a genuine type of politics of national unity and reconciliation. South Africa needs this type of co-operation amongst political parties and civic society to ensure that everyone recognises that they have a long-term interest and stake in the future of our country. The road ahead remains long and uphill and every South Africa must be equally motivated to walk it.

Today, the Leader of the Opposition and I stand together, side by side, as equal partners, in equal dignity, and with an equal commitment to making our country work. We have forged a partnership, which is based on wanting our country to succeed, by getting the economy right and solving our country's many problems.

For this reason, it is essential that KwaZulu Natal and the Western Cape maintain their political autonomy, so that the promises and benefits of a federal system may provide their contribution to our democracy At present we have a very diluted form of provincial autonomy. Yet if even this limited degree of autonomy is not exercised by all Provinces, because of their falling under the control of the same political party, the prospects of our democratic success remain very bleak.

However, there is something more fundamental which needs to be stressed in a venue such as this. In the past ten years we have achieved enormously across all aspects of social and economic endeavours. No one should make the mistake of believing that the past ten years have not been successful.

The whole of our country has grown at an unprecedented rate in our history. We have never seen as much physical development, construction and growth, as we have seen in the past ten years. The landscape of our cities has changed with industrial, business and shopping centres of dimensions and features never before seen in South Africa. It would be false for anyone to say that we have not achieved what are almost miracles in the past ten years.

That said, it would be equally self-defeating not to acknowledge that South Africa is now confronting five major crises. These five crises have the potential of forcing our country to forfeit many of the gains of our liberation. I refer, of course, to the crises of HIV/AIDS, crime, unemployment, poverty and corruption.

Young people are especially aware of the enormous unemployment crisis in our country, due to the fact that job creation has not been a priority of our Government for the past ten years. We have all experienced the present levels of crime, and have either been a victim of crime, or fear becoming one. We are all, directly or indirectly, affected by HIV/AIDS, for even those who are not infected, are bound to know somebody who is, or somebody suffering. We are all aware of the rising levels of corruption both in the public and the private sector.

And there is no possibility of any security and prosperity for the rich, until the plight of the poor is redressed and, unfortunately, since 1994 the levels and depths of poverty have increased throughout the country.

It is evident not enough has been done by the Government in the past ten years.

HIV/AIDS should have been dealt with differently, and it is untenable that to this day the full measure of treatment available is not being rolled out to all those who need it.

The same applies in respect of crime which is a problem which can be solved to a great extent by providing the police services with much greater resources. We need more policemen who are better paid, provided with better resources and better trained, together with a much broader, more efficient and better equipped judiciary.

My policies and those of the Leader of the Opposition have been very similar in this respect, not just in the past few weeks but for the past fifteen years.

At the beginning of the negotiation process, I tabled the issue of privatization of our entire public sector, to ensure that greater efficiency could be achieved throughout our economy, by privatizing the greatest possible number of our State assets. Our economy lacks internal flexibility and fluidity. It is still characterised by cartels, monopolies and lack of competition.

There is no reason why in South Africa our telecommunications should be so expensive, because we need to maintain a monopoly for the benefit of Telkom. There is no reason why our banking system should be one of the most expensive in the world.

I have always believed that we must liberalize our market forces, because I believe that South Africa can succeed if it is confronted with the need of becoming more efficient and productive.

In the end, sustainable employment generation can only come from steady employment growth. Government itself identified how to benchmark its failures or successes. The government's macro-economic policy, GEAR, indicated that a six percentage economic growth was the bare minimum necessary to put South Africa on the path to success and prosperity. Yet our economic growth has fallen to below two percentage, it is clear that theGovernment's own benchmarks for failure or success has spelt out that what has been done until now, is far below that which is required.

So it is now for the South African people to decide at the next election if same people should be entrusted with a new chance, or if it is rather time to ask for a change for the better.

To force the spring, the youth must make its voice heard and becomes a protagonist and an avant-garde of future changes. I urge young people to make a special effort to speak to anyone they know to urge them to vote because, in the end, it is their future that is at stake. My generation has brought us to where we are. It will be the responsibility of young people to take our future forward.

I thank God that I am now as strong as I have ever before been, and I feel as motivated now as I have ever been to providing a further measure of contribution to our public life.

I am committed to providing the full measure of my leadership for the next five years and to speaking up on behalf of the many people who now do not have a voice. I am committed to ensuring that the voice of the South African people be heard, as they demand a solution to the problems of HIV/AIDS, crime, unemployment, corruption and poverty. However, I cannot do so unless the South African people make their voices heard on April 14, by making the effort to vote. We must forge this partnership and I our dialogue will take us forward to a great South African adventure.

May God bless you all and protect your families.

I thank you.