Date: 22/03/2010
Source: Inkatha Freedom Party
Title: IFP: Buthelezi: Address by the IFP president, during a Human Right day celebration, Loskop

For the past fifty years, South Africans have gathered to mark the
tragedy that marred South Africa's history on 21 March 1960 in
Sharpeville. Since 1994, official events have been arranged to
commemorate this day which has now been called Human Rights Day. But
before 1994, although we did not do so as a nation, we who waged the
liberation struggle remembered Sharpeville every year; and every year
we determined afresh to keep working, keep struggling, and keep going
until we reached that day when the prospect of another Sharpeville
would forever be behind us.

What happened on 21 March 1960 is unthinkable to most of us today,
which gives the measure of how far we have come since then. The
demonstrations against pass laws that ended in the killing of 69
people and the wounding of 180 more have entered the pages of history.
The papers we rely on today to guide where we may go and how we may
act are no longer reference books or passes, but a national
Constitution that enshrines our rights as rights belonging to every
South African.

There are so many of this generation who do not know the wounds we
endured for the sake of liberty and the entrenchment of human rights
in South Africa. Often when I speak at such events I take pains to
explain to our youth exactly what happened during apartheid, how it
affected us and how far we have come since then. Yet I still suspect
that the world of my generation seems inaccessible to our youth and
they fail to understand the giant strides we have taken that have
brought us to the present day.

On this occasion, therefore, I want to explain the past fifty years in
terms that our young people can understand. The world has moved
forward at a terrific pace since 21 March 1960. It was only in 1962
that the audio cassette tape was invented; an invention that many of
you will not even remember. The cassette tape has since given way to
the compact disk, which is giving way to Blu-Ray, iPods and iTunes
which are downloadable to cell phones.

It was only after Sharpeville that the first computer game was
designed, the first handheld calculator was brought out, and the
computer mouse, ATMs and the barcode scanner were invented.
Sharpeville happened more than a decade before the first Bic lighter
was invented, two decades before the Hepatitis-B Vaccine and three
decades before the World Wide Web. I am not saying these things to be
flippant or to downplay the Sharpeville massacre. I say them to give
our youth some perspective of how much our world has changed since then.

In 1960, hundreds of thousands of South African citizens could not get
on a taxi or a train and go into urban areas. We could not travel
freely from one part of South Africa to another, but had to carry a
reference book everywhere we went to prove that we had special
authorization to be wherever we were. If the police stopped us and
asked to see our reference book, and we didn't have it with us, we
could be arrested on the spot and charged with contravening the law.

I can remember a number of occasions when I was arrested for not
having my pass with me. On one occasion it was in Vryheid, just less
than two hours drive from my home. And on another occasion, in
Germiston in Gauteng. I was detained there until the early hours of
the morning. I was saved by the intervention of Mrs Helen Suzman, a
Member of Parliament, who phoned the Police in Germiston. We even had
the unedifying experience of our King, the father of the present King,
King Cyprian Bhekuzulu kaSolomon, being arrested for not having his
pass with him. That was again in Gauteng. The case was referred by
myself to the legal firm of Mandela and Tambo.

The majority of South Africans could not marry whomever they pleased,
go wherever they wanted, study whatever they excelled at, befriend
anyone whose company they enjoyed, say whatever they thought, act on
whatever they believed, go to any hospital, swim at any beach, visit
any library, attend any school, worship at any church, access any
information, vote in any election, speak any language, choose where
they lived, choose their vocation or choose their leaders. If one was
in the company of a white female friend at night, one risked being
arrested under the Immorality Act, just for being together during the
dark hours.

The majority of South Africans did not have access to basic government
services. Many had no housing, no electricity, no sanitation, no
social security, no access to education or healthcare, no privacy, no
access to courts or justice, no assurance of dignity or personal
security and no reason to expect fair treatment, equal consideration
or any opportunity to rise above such a poor quality of life.

Today life in South Africa is vastly different, to the extent that
South Africans of this generation can take much for granted. But the
freedoms and rights we enjoy today did not come to us the same way in
which CDs and cell phones came. It was not an inevitable consequence
of the forward march of time that South Africa gained liberation.
Liberation and human rights came on the back of countless men and
women who engaged the grueling struggle to bring South Africa out of
the darkness of oppression and into the light of freedom.

Just a few days ago, one of such freedom fighters died and I was
honoured to speak at her funeral. Professor Fatima Meer was but one of
the many who sacrificed their own comfort and desires to pursue
something better for all South Africans. The names of Nelson Mandela,
Oliver Tambo, Dr Zami Conco and Robert Sobukwe are well known, but are
not the only names we should remember. There are many more, not
written in any history book or inscribed on any monument. They are the
South Africans who struggled every day for a better future by working
hard without giving up hope, by suffering without turning to revenge,
and by giving the little they had to raise a new generation who might
have more.

This sentiment underscored the tributes paid to Professor Meer
recently, as we remembered the sacrifices so many had made for the
sake of allowing South Africa to choose her own leaders. Professor
Meer's brother bemoaned the fact that some leaders who have been put
where they are by the blood, sweat and tears of others are now taking
more than their share from the very people who put them there; the
poorest of the poor. There are leaders who are corrupt, leaders who
betray our struggle by enriching themselves while many South Africans
still languish under the burden of poverty and insecurity.

These are not the kind of leaders we struggled to empower. It is
remarkable that in this day and age citizens of South Africa are
forced to report political leaders to the South African Human Rights
Commission to get them to respect the same rights that we fought for
during all these years. How is it possible that the ANC Youth League
President can stand up in public and declare that some of our people
deserve to be killed? It makes me wonder whether he has even read the
Constitution.

The basic requirement to any leader in South Africa is a knowledge of
and respect for our country's Constitution. It is tragic that the
ructions going on in the IFP right now are caused by the very same
problem of some young people not knowing and respecting our Party's
Constitution. The IFP's Constitution is a set of rules that everyone
agrees to abide by when they join the IFP. It is not arbitrarily
changed and cannot be used to benefit one person while compromising
another. The Constitution is in place to ensure that the Party is run
according to democratic principles that enhance effective operation,
discipline and success.

Therefore, if a Party member contravenes the Constitution, our
National Council has a responsibility to act to rectify the problem.
Our National Council is not aggressive or domineering. It simply acts
in line with constitutional prescripts to ensure that the Party is not
brought into disrepute. The same can be said of South Africa's
Constitution; it sets out the rules by which all South Africans agree
to abide as part of this nation. It protects our rights and expresses
our responsibilities. And if anyone acts in contravention of the
Constitution, the justice system has authority to intervene to set
matters right.

Let me be clear on this; the Constitution trumps everything else.
Those few agents provocateur who are threatening the unity of the IFP
by acting outside of the IFP Constitution cannot stand against the
solid foundation of our Constitution. What the IFP stands for cannot
be changed by a few mischief-makers and saboteurs. What the IFP has
achieved in this country cannot be swept aside by a handful of
ambitious rabble-rousers. The IFP is bigger than the problem it faces
with these people, and by standing on the strength of our
Constitution, the IFP will go on and grow and give to South Africa the
contribution that only we can give.

One of the contributions the IFP is making is to fight the constantly
increasing burden that the present government is willing to place on
ordinary people in order to meet its own responsibilities. We have a
government that is working inefficiently, ineffectively and with the
hindrance of widespread corruption. But when this same government
cannot deliver enough and on time, it turns to the people to shoulder
the burden. It is the people who end up paying more, having less and
working harder. This is not the IFP way.

We are seeing this obscenity at the national level of government with
the Eskom debacle, for instance. Even though on this Human Rights Day
we are all aware that we are entitled to equal access to basic
services, the poorest of our people are still being forced to pay
proportionally more for electricity than the rich, because government
has allowed Eskom to fund its building programme through levies rather
than through government's budget process. The phenomenal price hikes
that we are being subjected to, and will continue to be subjected to
for the next three years, put the benefit of electricity beyond the
reach of many South Africans.

The frustration and pain this brings is multiplied by the scandalous
news recently revealed in the media that Eskom has secret deals with
some large corporations which allow them to pay substantially less for
electricity than the average consumer. Where does this leave the many
taxpayers who are already suffering? Government has a responsibility
to protect consumers from the unfair practices of large monopolies and
cartels. And what is worse, the ruling Party has equity in Eskom
through HITACHI, something that is scandalous to say the least. The
burden of all of these things is borne by the poorest of the poor,
whose plight they claim they are concerned with.

The global financial crisis has caused us all to suffer, but some are
being forced to suffer more than others, and we are all tired of
hearing the global recession used as an excuse for poor service
delivery. Here in the Uthukela District, the Municipality's annual
report also refers to the financial crisis as the reason why not as
much has been done as could have been done. I was shocked to learn,
however, that the South African Police Force is now considered a
partner in enabling the Municipality to collect its dues. There is a
limit to what people can pay for services and it just makes no sense
to demand that they pay more than they actually have.

One has also been disappointed by the new culture of defiance that has
crept into the Party, particularly here in Uthukela District. The IFP
has always been known to be a disciplined organization with a culture
of respect as its bedrock. And yet here we have representatives of our
people, people who are councilors and who owe their positions to the
Party, defying the directives of the structures of the Party such as
the POC and the NEC and National Council. We have been very lenient
compared with the ruling Party, which has never hesitated to deal with
those who contravene the structures of their Constitution.

We have representatives of the Party in the forefront of destroying
this Party. It is an open secret that some of our Councilors are doing
all sorts of things to drum up opposition against me as the
constitutionally elected leader of the Party. Some Councilors have
even set up bogus branches which they are trying to use as some kind
of battering ram during the forthcoming elective Conference. Some
Councilors here in Uthukela went all over persuading members of the
IFP not to attend the provincial rally that I addressed at Qhudeni.

All these acts of defiance are done because we are far too lenient,
more than the ruling Party which never hesitates to fire transgressing
mayors and councilors. Our disciplinary process is a slow process and
this is unfortunate, because as the whole process drags on these
miscreants are busy creating division in the Party and destroying the
legacy of this Party.

I am glad that I am here today to warn you about all the lies and
distortions that you have seen in the media about our National
Chairperson and the false allegations fuelled by, amongst others,
Councilors here in Uthukela, that the NEC and the National Council are
persecuting our National Chairperson, to the extent that they founded
a rebellious body within the Party which called itself the "Friends of
VZ". You have seen the National Chairperson on television or have
heard her on radio denouncing these rebels who are bent on destroying
this Party, my legacy and the legacy of the Party.

The redeployment of our National Chairperson as Mayor to the KwaZulu
Natal Legislature has been misinterpreted as evidence of the so-called
persecution which it is alleged she has been subjected to by members
of the NEC and the National Council. The reason for that decision to
redeploy her is that some of the "Friends of VZ" in Pietermaritzburg
tried to disrupt a meeting of Members of Parliament who had gone there
to report back to the people, as they are doing anywhere. These
Friends-so-called then demanded that our National Chairperson, Ms
kaMagwaza Msibi, should have been present. And yet she is not a Member
of Parliament.

To stop these rebels from using this to divide the Party, the NEC and
the National Council then decided to redeploy the National
Chairperson, Ms kaMagwaza Msibi, to the Legislature, so that she can
then join other Members of Parliament in order to prevent these rebels
from using her not being in the parliamentary team as an instrument to
further divide the Party.

Issues of service delivery are close to the heart of the IFP. We want
to see government at all levels working more efficiently and with more
common sense, so that the people are not made to bear a burden for the
failures of their government. For this reason, the IFP is mobilizing
its party structures to prepare for the Local Government Elections
next year. The need for change is echoing around our country. It is
time for leaders to stop treating our people with disrespect,
pacifying them with false promises and ignoring their dire needs.

Following national elections, the IFP launched the Vukuzithathe
Campaign to take back ground we had lost to leaders who promise our
people the moon, and fail to deliver. The IFP lost support in last
year's elections, but we still pose a credible challenge to those who
are failing our people. We still have hundreds of thousands of South
Africans backing us, and calling on us to make a change.

The IFP has inaugurated more than 1000 branches and we have now
reached a deadline. Any other branches will be inaugurated after the
Party's Conference in May. We want to ensure that anyone who wants to
join the IFP's Revolution of Goodwill may have the opportunity to do
so. There is strong evidence that we are growing in the right direction.

The IFP has been a lighthouse of integrity in the dark storms South
Africa has faced. We have the experience and the know-how to govern
efficiently. We have the track record to prove it. We have common
sense on our side and the guts to make tough calls when tough calls
are required. The fallout of the global financial crisis could have
been minimized if the IFP's warnings were heeded and our advice
followed. We have been proven right about the fiscal policies South
Africa should follow, just as we were proven right about the
destruction an armed struggle would bring and the poverty which
international sanctions would entrench during apartheid.

The IFP remembers Sharpeville. We remember apartheid. We remember the
fallen heroes of our struggle. But we also look to the future and
remember to plan for what lies ahead. South Africa has come a long way
since 21 March 1960, but we still have a long way to go. Together with
the people of our country, the IFP is ready to change course from the
corruption and inefficiency that is destroying the rewards of our
struggle and head off again in the direction of liberty for all,
prosperity for all, human rights for all and equal dignity.

May South Africa's future be brought back onto a path of hope by the
very people the IFP has always served; the people of goodwill, who
care about our country. Today, as we celebrate Human Rights Day, let
us commit to continue moving forward together.

I thank you.

Ends.