Date: 27/06/2010
Source: The Inkatha Freedom Party
Title: IFP: Buthelezi: Address by the IFP president, at the IFP Gauteng provincial conference, Soweto

Throughout South Africa there is an atmosphere of festivity. Although
many of us continue with our daily routine of going to work, running a
business, preparing for exams or job seeking, there is almost a sense
of everything being put on hold until the 2010 FIFA World Cup has
ended. Even though Bafana Bafana will not continue to the next round,
our focus is still on our stadiums and TV screens, and our media is
almost wholly preoccupied with soccer fever. This is a good time to
regroup and reset our focus.

I cannot overemphasis the importance of our coming together today to
elect leaders who have the right focus. We have lost an enormous
amount of time and spent far too much energy on fighting fires started
by the so-called "Friends of VZ". Every meeting is taken up with
disciplinary matters and discussing the latest act of sabotage against
our Party. Everywhere IFP members gather, there is talk of split
loyalties, suspicion and treachery. The damage done by the "Friends of
VZ" is great. But we are doing our Party a grave disservice by
allowing it to consume us.

Let us not be fooled. Derailing our focus is high on the agenda of
those who seek to weaken our Party in order to snatch away its
leadership, and of those who are funding them in the hope of seeing
the IFP thoroughly destroyed. We have lost more than a year since the
2009 general elections. This is lost time because it has not been
poured into the very programmes and tasks we set ourselves in our
Extended Review Council after the elections.

Following the disappointing results of April 2009, we came together as
all the structures of the IFP to identify where we had gone wrong,
what we were still doing right, and how we could tilt the scales back
toward success. We were frank with each other and honest with
ourselves, and we emerged from the Council with a sound plan of
action; the Vukuzithathe campaign. It was a plan we all agreed could
turn our Party's fortunes around.

But since then, little has been done to meet the deadlines and achieve
the goals of Vukuzithathe. When we met again two months ago for a
second Extended Review Council, we had the courage of saying that our
plan had been derailed. We put the plan of action back on the table
and committed to accelerating the implementation of Vukuzithathe. Last
weekend, we held a National Council meeting which focused on where we
are with the campaign, and came face to face with the realization that
the antics of the "Friends of VZ" are still stealing our time.

I have therefore decided that we, as the leadership, are drawing a
line in the sand. We have strategized and streamlined, and have agreed
that the focus of the Party needs to shift from the internal ructions,
towards winning the 2011 Local Government Elections. In order to
empower this shift, our National Council identified six teams and
tasked them with specific programmes of action, so that we can regain
our impetus and start working smarter and harder. The various teams
have been mandated to drive the Vukuzithathe campaign, to develop
proactive initiatives to change the negative image of the IFP which
has been created by the ructions and in-fighting, and to deal with the
issue of the "Friends of VZ".

It is obvious that the in-fighting must be addressed to stop the
decline in voter support. The treachery of the so-called "Friends of
VZ" needs to be arrested and serious damage control needs to take
place. But if that is all we focus on, we have not moved forwards. The
ANC is moving forward and pressing into our support base. If we fail
to grow, we will fail full stop. We need to refocus our attention on
2011 and transform crisis mode, into election mode.

The establishment of the task teams have freed us up to do the work
required of us, which is mobilizing support, initiating election
campaigns, securing votes, reaching the electorate, and persuading,
inspiring and cajoling South Africans to support the IFP. We need to
get the votes and it is time we found some innovative ways of doing
it. Our election campaign is now a year behind schedule and we have a
lot of catching up to do.

In the end, election outcomes are determined by votes. It is all a
numbers game. If people do not vote for the IFP, our numbers are going
to drop again in 2011, to the point where the IFP will struggle to
make a significant impact on South African politics. That is not good
news for the IFP, and it is bad news for South Africa. I know that
this country still needs the IFP's contribution. I have no doubt in my
mind that the downward spiral of politics towards corruption,
inequality and injustice will not be arrested unless there is a strong
political force for integrity.

That is the IFP. We are the voice of integrity and the champions of
democracy. We understand service and believe in good governance. We
pursue federalism, to get government closer to the people on the
ground and to give South Africans a more powerful voice when it comes
to deciding policies and laws. We are committed to seeing the majority
uplifted and development attained by more than an elite few.

We are not satisfied with BBBEE that allows a handful of people to
drive fancy cars. We believe in economic empowerment of mothers, of
child-headed households, of young entrepreneurs, of aspiring students
and struggling elders. Our focus is on helping families put food on
the table, not on helping large corporations to buy each other out. We
believe in empowering young people to get an education and have the
opportunity to develop their potential. The IFP's support base is
among ordinary people, fighting ordinary battles under extraordinarily
difficult circumstances.

The IFP appeals to these people because the IFP has stayed the same.
Before democracy, we struggled alongside South Africans for justice,
equality, dignity and development. After democracy, we did the same.
During apartheid, we in the erstwhile KwaZulu Government sacrificed
and struggled to ensure good governance and service delivery, even on
the shoestring budget of an unjust government. After democracy, our
focus did not change. We still pursue good governance and service
delivery in every province of our country; we are just better at it
because we have the experience.

The IFP did not become dazzled by the increase in resources available
within government. We were used to administrating government resources
and we knew how far money could stretch. It was obvious to us that
even though the pie was being sliced differently, there would still
not be enough to feed every need within our country. We therefore
remained circumspect in our stewardship and uncompromising in our
warnings to government about fiscal policies and the need for economic
growth and development.

We have also taken a stand with the unemployed people of this country
and urged government to adopt greater flexibility in the labour
market. Government's policies to address unemployment are just not
delivering the goods. Despite the President's promise of 500 000 new
jobs by the end of last year, we shed another 171 000 jobs in the
first quarter of 2010. If one were to try and imagine how many
unemployed people that constitutes, picture the whole of Johannesburg
being without work, and add another million on top of that.

It was here in this province that the IFP youth marched on the
Legislature and presented a memorandum to the Office of the Presidency
calling for an urgent intervention to address unemployment. That was
three years ago, and we are still working to see this problem turned
around. For as long as there is one South African who cannot enjoy the
God-given right to work because of a lack of opportunity, or lack of
skill, or social injustice, the work of the IFP will not be complete.

The IFP fought for our democratic constitution to provide for
provinces, to counterbalance the ANC's quest for the centralization of
power. I thank God we won that battle. The province of Gauteng is now
empowered by our Constitution to design its own policy in many areas
of governance, and has a stronger voice in determining how things will
be done in this part of South Africa. I am delighted that the Gauteng
Provincial Chairperson, Mr Petros Sithole, has now joined us in the
national Parliament. His presence at the national level can only
benefit his contribution in this province.

This has also freed up Mr Bonginkosi Dlamini to focus his full
attention on the needs of Gauteng. Mr Dlamini, like many of our
leaders here, is a critical asset to the Party and we are grateful for
the work he is doing to develop and uplift our communities in Gauteng.
I know, for instance, that Mr Dlamini has approached the national
Minister of Housing about the distressing living conditions of the
majority of our supporters in Gauteng.

The Minister has admitted that there is a serious crisis in terms of
housing and the IFP is applying pressure on Government to improve the
subhuman conditions of many hostels in and around Gauteng. We believe
hostels should be converted from dormitory style accommodation into
self-contained units that can accommodate single people or families.
Such units must be affordable, have basic services and be integrated
into the broader community.

Every South African, whether they live in a shack, a block of flats or
a hostel, is entitled to government services. The fact that this has
not materialized after 16 years of democracy is an indictment on our
government. The IFP is determined to see the situation improve. We are
keenly aware of the needs here. We know our people, just as our people
know us.

South Africa needs a strong IFP and I believe that, even in the midst
of the ructions troubling us at the moment, the Party retains a core
of strength. Our strength comes from the people who support us, the
people who know the legacy of the IFP and identify with what we stand
for. As we approach our Annual General Conference, and as we draw
nearer to the 2011 Local Government elections, we cannot afford to
lose the support of our core. The battle for the soul of the IFP is
raging, and the intensity will only increase.

Already we are seeing lives being lost to violence among our members.
I was devastated last Sunday to hear that in a meeting in KwaMashu a
prominent leader boasted about the power of the gun; and at the end of
the meeting Mr Michael Makathini was shot dead. Mr Gwala was also shot
in the thigh. This is not the first incident of guns being drawn at an
IFP meeting, and I fear it will not be the last. Somehow our politics
has deteriorated into swearing matches, fistfights and chair throwing.
That is not the culture of the IFP. At times, I hardly recognize this
Party I founded 35 years ago.

Since I established Inkatha in 1975 I undertook to seek the genuine
will of the people, because I saw that the ANC-in-exile was running a
struggle campaign that was based on ideologies and tactics not tested
with the majority. Most ordinary South Africans did not identify with
the ANC's strategy of an armed struggle, because we were here, in the
line of fire, while the ANC's leaders were scattered across the world
pontificating over how to force democracy.

I was determined then to identify the genuine will of the people and
to receive their mandate for what Inkatha should do to best serve
South Africa. In all our meetings and conferences, I pursued an
atmosphere of serene debate, encouraging people to speak their minds
and even disagree, only without being disagreeable. We developed a
culture of respect within the IFP, and a culture of discipline. We
were not afraid to speak frankly. We never feared intimidation or
violent consequences for aligning ourselves with this idea or that
notion. And in this way we coaxed out the genuine will of the people
and received their mandate.

That is the kind of Party I founded and nurtured. That is the Party we
built together. That is our legacy. So when our meetings now
deteriorate into fistfights and insults, I am left wondering how the
IFP will convince the electorate that we are a better option than the
ANC or COPE or even the DA. We know from recent media reports that
guns have been drawn at meetings of the ANC Youth League, and we know
that COPE's Conference ended in chaos. So how will the electorate
differentiate between the unruly behaviour of our opponents and the
unruly behaviour of our own members?

In every election since 1994, the IFP has been able to hold its head
up high and tell the electorate that we are different because we do
not engage in mudslinging or resort to intimidation. We have never
been the ones to burn down schools or rip up toilets. We have never
told young people to give up on education because politics comes
first. We have never made headlines with racist remarks about other
leaders. Our municipalities are never the ones to suffer tyre-burning
riots from dissatisfied communities.

We are different because we stand on a higher moral ground, believing
that the best interests of the country are served by maintaining
integrity, discipline and security. I was delighted to attend a
provincial conference of the IFP Youth Brigade last month called by Mr
S'khumbuzo Khanyeza, who recently returned to the IFP fold. With the
violence that has been marring our meetings of late, one might have
expected to see some sort of incident among our young elephants. The
discussions were passionate, but orderly, and the meeting went well.

I was almost surprised to hear afterwards that one of the key
saboteurs in the "Friends of VZ" was present at the meeting and had
hoped to stir up trouble. But he left with his proverbial tail between
his legs when he witnessed the overwhelming support of our youth for a
united, strong and disciplined party. Our youth want it. Our leaders
want it. Our supporters want it. A united, strong and disciplined
party is the only kind of party that can grow in 2011.

This is the kind of Party I am determined to forge, and I ask you
today to elect leaders in Gauteng who can come on board with the plan
to get the IFP back on a winning path. We need leaders who can focus
their full attention on growing the IFP before 2011. We need people
who can mobilize party support, attract votes and boost our numbers.
We need people of integrity who are more concerned with serving than
with status.

I want leaders on my team who are willing to fight for a united,
strong and disciplined party. I urge you, in your deliberations today,
to draw a line in the sand and decide that this is the moment where we
regroup and refocus our attention on 2011. We can get back on track.
The future is ours for the taking.

I thank you.