Date: 18/01/2004
Source: Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)
Title: Buthelezi: Launch of 2004 IFP election campaign
LAUNCH OF 2004 IFP ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Today I am unveiling the Inkatha Freedom Party's manifesto and programme to govern South Africa in the next Parliament.
The IFP is contesting the General Election with the theme 'Real Development Now: Let's make a difference together.' These three simple words, 'Real Development Now', spells out what my Party and I believe is the most immediate challenge facing our nation. The following sentence 'Let's make a difference together' makes clear that the IFP believes that we can only meet this challenge if we pull together as one nation.
My Party's case is a simple and positive one: we believe South Africa can and must be better. If any country has the potential to be the 21st century success story and a dynamic player in the global economy, it is South Africa. Ours is a country blessed with extraordinary people. We are a young nation. Our land is blessed with an abundance of natural resources and beauty. Let us not allow the cut and thrust of this election campaign to cloud the momentous achievements that we have fought for together since 1994.
Our democracy has begun to mature and deepen. The nation is stronger. We are no longer the polecat of the international community. Reconciliation and peace has flourished. Who would have said ten years ago that we would have a situation where there is almost no violence in KwaZulu-Natal? The sceptics said we could not do it. But we did it. It is nonetheless regrettable that political violence has not been totally eliminated in this Province. We are still very concerned about incidents such as the one which took place in Lamontville on the 8th of November during registrations, when in the presence of a prominent leader of the ruling Party in this Province, members of the IFP, including an 89 year-old lady had their T-Shirts torn off their backs by ANC supporters. We should not try sweep these things under the carpet.
The construction of a new society free from racism, discord, ethnicity and sexism is well underway. I sense as I travel throughout the country and abroad that we are a people more at ease with ourselves. These are wonderful achievements that belong to the people of South Africa, not any one politician or political party. I say that if we can transcend the divisions of the past in the way we have, there are no glass ceilings to what we can become.
Yet that said, the ANC government is failing to meet the challenges that would place South Africa on the path to success and prosperity. Take two of the arguably most pressing developmental challenges facing South Africa: HIV/Aids and unemployment. Around ten percent of our citizens are HIV positive and nearly 2000 people are infected every day. The official figure for unemployment is around the 30% mark, a similar level experienced by the United States in the Great Depression.
I would not say the government created these problems, but its response has been woefully inadequate and it has made them worse. And arguably, in the case of its response to the HIV/Aids epidemic, bordering on criminal neglect. As a Minister who has served in the ANC-led government since 1994, I have found it difficult to explain to people, especially in the rural areas, why inequality has widened since 1994 and the poor have become poorer.
It is time for a fresh approach. It is time for 'Real Development Now.' The IFP Manifesto is a detailed plan of action that contains common-sense proposals to address HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment, corruption and poverty. These are the five golden policy solutions that will put South Africa on the path to prosperity and success. This manifesto 'Real Development Now' is short on spin and rich in policy.
Our approach is a joined-up one. We say that if the economy is freed and growth is increased to above six percent, employment opportunities will be created. This will reduce the main causes of crime, despair and deprivation. And the wealth gap between the richest and the poorest will be narrowed.
After ten years, this government still does not understand that governments themselves cannot create jobs. At heart, I fear the ANC remains committed to socialist interventionism. They say in their manifesto that they are going to create one million jobs. But these jobs will by their nature only be temporary because they are in infrastructural development. While this Department of Work’s programme has been welcome for quite some time already, we do not think that it is right to flaunt it around as a substitute for the desperately needed permanent jobs.
The IFP’s vision for South Africa is of a high wage, high skill economy. There are no short cuts to achieving this. Our twelve-point plan contained in our manifesto contains proposals to transform South Africa’s economy by developing our skills-base. Education and skills training is the only way. We see the need to create a regulatory and fiscal environment that is attractive to foreign investment. We say to entrepreneurs and skilled people that if you add value to South Africa, if you create opportunities, you are welcome here.
We believe in investing in order to develop our long-term industrial basis, particularly in the new high-tech digital economy and in the field of biotechnology. Our approach is about breaking the cycle of spending on social exclusion and investing in creating opportunities for all. This is how you lift people out of social exclusion. A hand up, not a hand down.
HIV/Aids is the ANC government's biggest policy failure. No sudden U-turn in the government's policy can compensate for the cost millions of South Africans have had to already pay for this government's apathy and failure. Lives lost, families broken, livelihoods destroyed. What will the ANC do if they win another term of office? Their 2004 manifesto fails to outline a comprehensive plan with proposals to eradicate HIV/Aids. The disease is designated in the document as "HIV and Aids". Can they still not bring themselves to say that the two are linked?
HIV/Aids is a national emergency! The ANC cannot be trusted on this issue. You already know how an IFP government would act on HIV/Aids. My colleague, Dr Mtshali who sits next to me here, in February 2002, rolled-out a programme to provide anti-retroviral drugs to prevent the transmission of the HIV virus from pregnant mothers to unborn babies. And, as you will recall, he did this in the teeth of fierce opposition from the national Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Bold. Compassionate. Resolute. The IFP will not flinch from taking tough - but the right - decisions. The IFP's comprehensive plan to deal with the HIV/Aids pandemic is twofold: prevention and caring for those infected. An IFP led-government would unequivocally treat HIV/Aids as a national priority. We will use any medicine made available by science to prevent the contraction and spread of this disease.
Our proposals to care for those infected and affected by HIV/Aids are grounded in the extended family and community. In Africa, the extended family has always taken care of the most vulnerable. It is only by assisting the extended family, in particular child-headed families, that we can win this war. It is time to show we that care. It is time for the IFP.
Friends, I have served in politics for a long time - for over half-a-century. I have lost count of how many times I have seen that haunting look of despair in the eyes of many of my countrymen. In the eyes of mothers trying to make ends meet for their families. In the eyes of fathers trying to find work to provide for their families. In the eyes of children who have lost one or both of their parents to HIV/Aids. I say to them, your interests are our interests. We care about you.
Our manifesto contains a ten-point plan to beat poverty. Our approach is participatory and will involve active government, co-operation with local communities, NGO’s and the private sector. So that local communities become self-sufficient, they will be provided with the necessary infrastructural resources, training and funding. We will work for the establishment of an official programme of government, which will prioritise a food-production strategy. We will launch a back-to-basics food security campaign, which will mobilise communities to work together to maximise agricultural activity. This, together, with a new agricultural deal for the rural areas will empower people to break the chains of poverty. It is time for 'Real Development Now.'
Ladies and Gentlemen, if you open any newspaper or listen to any commentator, they will tell you that one of the biggest concerns of South Africans and people overseas is the violent tide of crime that threatens to engulf our nation and tear our communities asunder. It is the first responsibility of government to protect its citizens. A government that fails to protect its citizens, is a government that has failed.
The IFP has an unashamedly zero tolerance attitude to crime and corruption. The IFP manifesto contains a twelve-point plan to fight crime that includes upgrading law enforcement and devolving police powers to the locallevel. We will provide more, better paid, better trained and better equipped police personnel who can get the job done. Throughout the world the best and most effective police services are operated by cities, such as the New York Police Department. Most crime is localised. The present centralisation of the police is a large part of the problem. An IFP-led government will devolve most policing activities and organisation to provincial and local governments. I know that the overwhelming majority of South Africans are decent, law abiding citizens. It is time for the decent majority to say a collective 'no' to the criminal minority.
I have just briefly outlined some of the IFP's proposals contained in our manifesto 'Real Development Now' to transform South Africa and place it on the path to prosperity and success. But what about our political values? There are three 'C's that the IFP adheres to. They are Caring, Capable and Clean. The IFP is committed to caring about how the decisions we take in government affect people's lives. The IFP is committed to providing capable leadership in government. No more squandering scarce resources on failed policies and initiatives. The IFP is committed to clean government. We will not tolerate corruption. We will govern according to the highest ethical and moral standards.
If any our public representatives fail to adhere to these three 'C's they will be immediately compelled to relinquish their office. I personally will not hesitate to show them the red card. That is my pledge to the South African people. The IFP feels the responsibility of providing South Africa with better leadership. If we have five more years of the same, the crises of HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment, corruption and poverty will strangle South Africa and take away all the gains we made with our liberation. Each political party contests the elections because it wishes to become the government of the future, and each Party Leader rightly aspires to become the next President. The South African people must realise that they have the power to hire and fire any government they wish, and it is for them to appoint anyone they wish as the next President. We need to ensure that this election empowers South Africans to decide our future. It is essential that the ANC be deprived of the power to tamper with our Constitution at will or at whim. It would be ideal if no political party held more than fifty percent of the vote in order that compromises in government would become necessary.
All these electoral outcomes are within the power of the South African people to decide. I hope that these elections will be producing surprises for everyone concerned, which will prove that the South African people have, indeed, chosen to take charge of our destiny and give our country not five years of the same, but five years of something better. I will be addressing many more issues relating to our campaign during the rally latertoday and, therefore, I will refrain from answering many questions which will be dealt with by what I have to say this afternoon. Nonetheless, I wish to conclude by stating that we shall govern, as we will campaign. It is time for 'Real Development Now.' I love my country. I know you do too. 'Let's make the difference together.'
January 18, 2004
Source: Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP)
Title: Buthelezi: Launch of 2004 IFP election campaign
LAUNCH OF 2004 IFP ELECTION CAMPAIGN
Ladies and Gentlemen:
Today I am unveiling the Inkatha Freedom Party's manifesto and programme to govern South Africa in the next Parliament.
The IFP is contesting the General Election with the theme 'Real Development Now: Let's make a difference together.' These three simple words, 'Real Development Now', spells out what my Party and I believe is the most immediate challenge facing our nation. The following sentence 'Let's make a difference together' makes clear that the IFP believes that we can only meet this challenge if we pull together as one nation.
My Party's case is a simple and positive one: we believe South Africa can and must be better. If any country has the potential to be the 21st century success story and a dynamic player in the global economy, it is South Africa. Ours is a country blessed with extraordinary people. We are a young nation. Our land is blessed with an abundance of natural resources and beauty. Let us not allow the cut and thrust of this election campaign to cloud the momentous achievements that we have fought for together since 1994.
Our democracy has begun to mature and deepen. The nation is stronger. We are no longer the polecat of the international community. Reconciliation and peace has flourished. Who would have said ten years ago that we would have a situation where there is almost no violence in KwaZulu-Natal? The sceptics said we could not do it. But we did it. It is nonetheless regrettable that political violence has not been totally eliminated in this Province. We are still very concerned about incidents such as the one which took place in Lamontville on the 8th of November during registrations, when in the presence of a prominent leader of the ruling Party in this Province, members of the IFP, including an 89 year-old lady had their T-Shirts torn off their backs by ANC supporters. We should not try sweep these things under the carpet.
The construction of a new society free from racism, discord, ethnicity and sexism is well underway. I sense as I travel throughout the country and abroad that we are a people more at ease with ourselves. These are wonderful achievements that belong to the people of South Africa, not any one politician or political party. I say that if we can transcend the divisions of the past in the way we have, there are no glass ceilings to what we can become.
Yet that said, the ANC government is failing to meet the challenges that would place South Africa on the path to success and prosperity. Take two of the arguably most pressing developmental challenges facing South Africa: HIV/Aids and unemployment. Around ten percent of our citizens are HIV positive and nearly 2000 people are infected every day. The official figure for unemployment is around the 30% mark, a similar level experienced by the United States in the Great Depression.
I would not say the government created these problems, but its response has been woefully inadequate and it has made them worse. And arguably, in the case of its response to the HIV/Aids epidemic, bordering on criminal neglect. As a Minister who has served in the ANC-led government since 1994, I have found it difficult to explain to people, especially in the rural areas, why inequality has widened since 1994 and the poor have become poorer.
It is time for a fresh approach. It is time for 'Real Development Now.' The IFP Manifesto is a detailed plan of action that contains common-sense proposals to address HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment, corruption and poverty. These are the five golden policy solutions that will put South Africa on the path to prosperity and success. This manifesto 'Real Development Now' is short on spin and rich in policy.
Our approach is a joined-up one. We say that if the economy is freed and growth is increased to above six percent, employment opportunities will be created. This will reduce the main causes of crime, despair and deprivation. And the wealth gap between the richest and the poorest will be narrowed.
After ten years, this government still does not understand that governments themselves cannot create jobs. At heart, I fear the ANC remains committed to socialist interventionism. They say in their manifesto that they are going to create one million jobs. But these jobs will by their nature only be temporary because they are in infrastructural development. While this Department of Work’s programme has been welcome for quite some time already, we do not think that it is right to flaunt it around as a substitute for the desperately needed permanent jobs.
The IFP’s vision for South Africa is of a high wage, high skill economy. There are no short cuts to achieving this. Our twelve-point plan contained in our manifesto contains proposals to transform South Africa’s economy by developing our skills-base. Education and skills training is the only way. We see the need to create a regulatory and fiscal environment that is attractive to foreign investment. We say to entrepreneurs and skilled people that if you add value to South Africa, if you create opportunities, you are welcome here.
We believe in investing in order to develop our long-term industrial basis, particularly in the new high-tech digital economy and in the field of biotechnology. Our approach is about breaking the cycle of spending on social exclusion and investing in creating opportunities for all. This is how you lift people out of social exclusion. A hand up, not a hand down.
HIV/Aids is the ANC government's biggest policy failure. No sudden U-turn in the government's policy can compensate for the cost millions of South Africans have had to already pay for this government's apathy and failure. Lives lost, families broken, livelihoods destroyed. What will the ANC do if they win another term of office? Their 2004 manifesto fails to outline a comprehensive plan with proposals to eradicate HIV/Aids. The disease is designated in the document as "HIV and Aids". Can they still not bring themselves to say that the two are linked?
HIV/Aids is a national emergency! The ANC cannot be trusted on this issue. You already know how an IFP government would act on HIV/Aids. My colleague, Dr Mtshali who sits next to me here, in February 2002, rolled-out a programme to provide anti-retroviral drugs to prevent the transmission of the HIV virus from pregnant mothers to unborn babies. And, as you will recall, he did this in the teeth of fierce opposition from the national Health Minister, Manto Tshabalala-Msimang.
Bold. Compassionate. Resolute. The IFP will not flinch from taking tough - but the right - decisions. The IFP's comprehensive plan to deal with the HIV/Aids pandemic is twofold: prevention and caring for those infected. An IFP led-government would unequivocally treat HIV/Aids as a national priority. We will use any medicine made available by science to prevent the contraction and spread of this disease.
Our proposals to care for those infected and affected by HIV/Aids are grounded in the extended family and community. In Africa, the extended family has always taken care of the most vulnerable. It is only by assisting the extended family, in particular child-headed families, that we can win this war. It is time to show we that care. It is time for the IFP.
Friends, I have served in politics for a long time - for over half-a-century. I have lost count of how many times I have seen that haunting look of despair in the eyes of many of my countrymen. In the eyes of mothers trying to make ends meet for their families. In the eyes of fathers trying to find work to provide for their families. In the eyes of children who have lost one or both of their parents to HIV/Aids. I say to them, your interests are our interests. We care about you.
Our manifesto contains a ten-point plan to beat poverty. Our approach is participatory and will involve active government, co-operation with local communities, NGO’s and the private sector. So that local communities become self-sufficient, they will be provided with the necessary infrastructural resources, training and funding. We will work for the establishment of an official programme of government, which will prioritise a food-production strategy. We will launch a back-to-basics food security campaign, which will mobilise communities to work together to maximise agricultural activity. This, together, with a new agricultural deal for the rural areas will empower people to break the chains of poverty. It is time for 'Real Development Now.'
Ladies and Gentlemen, if you open any newspaper or listen to any commentator, they will tell you that one of the biggest concerns of South Africans and people overseas is the violent tide of crime that threatens to engulf our nation and tear our communities asunder. It is the first responsibility of government to protect its citizens. A government that fails to protect its citizens, is a government that has failed.
The IFP has an unashamedly zero tolerance attitude to crime and corruption. The IFP manifesto contains a twelve-point plan to fight crime that includes upgrading law enforcement and devolving police powers to the locallevel. We will provide more, better paid, better trained and better equipped police personnel who can get the job done. Throughout the world the best and most effective police services are operated by cities, such as the New York Police Department. Most crime is localised. The present centralisation of the police is a large part of the problem. An IFP-led government will devolve most policing activities and organisation to provincial and local governments. I know that the overwhelming majority of South Africans are decent, law abiding citizens. It is time for the decent majority to say a collective 'no' to the criminal minority.
I have just briefly outlined some of the IFP's proposals contained in our manifesto 'Real Development Now' to transform South Africa and place it on the path to prosperity and success. But what about our political values? There are three 'C's that the IFP adheres to. They are Caring, Capable and Clean. The IFP is committed to caring about how the decisions we take in government affect people's lives. The IFP is committed to providing capable leadership in government. No more squandering scarce resources on failed policies and initiatives. The IFP is committed to clean government. We will not tolerate corruption. We will govern according to the highest ethical and moral standards.
If any our public representatives fail to adhere to these three 'C's they will be immediately compelled to relinquish their office. I personally will not hesitate to show them the red card. That is my pledge to the South African people. The IFP feels the responsibility of providing South Africa with better leadership. If we have five more years of the same, the crises of HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment, corruption and poverty will strangle South Africa and take away all the gains we made with our liberation. Each political party contests the elections because it wishes to become the government of the future, and each Party Leader rightly aspires to become the next President. The South African people must realise that they have the power to hire and fire any government they wish, and it is for them to appoint anyone they wish as the next President. We need to ensure that this election empowers South Africans to decide our future. It is essential that the ANC be deprived of the power to tamper with our Constitution at will or at whim. It would be ideal if no political party held more than fifty percent of the vote in order that compromises in government would become necessary.
All these electoral outcomes are within the power of the South African people to decide. I hope that these elections will be producing surprises for everyone concerned, which will prove that the South African people have, indeed, chosen to take charge of our destiny and give our country not five years of the same, but five years of something better. I will be addressing many more issues relating to our campaign during the rally latertoday and, therefore, I will refrain from answering many questions which will be dealt with by what I have to say this afternoon. Nonetheless, I wish to conclude by stating that we shall govern, as we will campaign. It is time for 'Real Development Now.' I love my country. I know you do too. 'Let's make the difference together.'
January 18, 2004
Advertisement
EMAIL THIS ARTICLE SAVE THIS ARTICLE FEEDBACK
To subscribe email subscriptions@creamermedia.co.za or click here
To advertise email advertising@creamermedia.co.za or click here
