Date: 24/07/2011
Source: The Inkatha Freedom Party
Title: IFP: Buthelezi: Address by the president, at a meeting with the City of Johannesburg district, Johannesburg

I thank you members of the IFP in Gauteng for the good decision that I
should come up so that we can together look at the post local
election's scene. That we should look at what happened to us as a
Party, and at why it happened.

The political landscape has shifted since the 18th of May and there
has been much speculation over what the electoral result means for our
country's future. A clear message was sent to the ruling Party that
the electorate is no longer enamoured with the way the ANC is
governing. The role of opposition politics gained support as votes for
the DA increased across the board. Cope was replaced as the third
largest political party by the IFP, as we regained our position as
number 3 nationally according to election results. These were all
positive developments which bode well for democracy. But not all the
news was good.

We cannot pretend that we do not feel the pain of losing so much
ground in the 2011 Local Government Elections. In the past five years,
the IFP has run 32 municipalities in KwaZulu Natal and we did so with
all the dedication, integrity and experience that the IFP is known
for. Yet we emerged from the elections with only 2 municipalities.
This has changed the course of the IFP. The electoral result shed us
of most of our responsibilities of governance, freeing us to pursue a
more powerful opposition role, both in KwaZulu Natal and nationally.

Looking at what happened against the background of the predictions of
all the pundits, amongst whom I mention the so-called political
analysts, the hostile media, the amount of money that bankrolled the
NFP, and the predominance of brown envelope journalism, we still
survived. We as a Party are still alive and kicking. This in spite
of the fact that there were concerted efforts to destroy our Party by
some amongst the most powerful people in this country. And in spite
of the fact that we did not have even a fraction of the resources that
were used by all the combined forces, to counter the agenda to split
our Party. The obituary of our Party was a prominent feature, of all
that was said by the doomsayers who wrote about our imminent demise,
as a factor in South African politics. Today's gathering is evidence
of the fact that we are still players in spite of all the losses that
we sustained in the May 18th election. We may be battered but we are
not yet dead as was predicted.

I came to the City of Johannesburg before the election campaign got
underway to speak to you frankly about what was happening in the IFP.
We discussed the difficulties caused by the "Friends of VZ" and the
divisions engineered by our former National Chairperson, with the
support of some leaders in the ANC. We considered the then recent
formation of the NFP and voiced our concern over the potential for a
split vote, which we had seen happen in Estcourt and Eshowe during
by-elections, when the NFP put forward its independent candidates, and
handed those municipalities to the ANC. Exactly what we saw coming
happened. Our municipalities were handed on a platter to the ANC by
the NFP.

Now the writing is on the wall. There is no longer a need for
speculation or suspicions. May 18th told us everything we needed to
know, proving that the NFP and the ANC were indeed co-conspirators in
the attempted destruction of the IFP. In the end, they did split the
vote and created 19 hung municipalities in KwaZulu Natal. The message
from the electorate was that the IFP was still needed and trusted, but
the NFP had brought an element of uncertainty. What the electorate did
not ask for was an ANC takeover.

If the people had wanted the ANC, the ANC would have won an outright
majority. They did not. But one municipality after the next, was
handed to them on a silver platter by the NFP, who prided themselves
on being named the "kingmaker" after the May 18th elections. The
ANC-NFP coalition was inevitable. It was payback for the ANC's
support, and brought Mrs kaMagwaza-Msibi closer to the kind of power
she seeks. So although the electorate did not ask for an ANC local
government in many of the municipalities that were hung, in which we
had most votes, they got it. And although people who voted for the NFP
did not ask to get into bed with the ANC, that's where they were
taken. To my mind, that is not democracy. When the will of the people
is disregarded for political expediency, democracy is perverted.
There were ructions when members of the NFP approached the IFP,
stating their revulsion against the idea of operating with the ANC in
a coalition. A lot of pressure had to be exerted on them and they
were threatened with expulsions, if they voted with the IFP as they
intended to do.

Our political opponents and the media pundits were quick to jump to
the conclusion that the IFP was finished. Somehow they assumed that
governance was the soul of the IFP; that if we were not in government,
we would lose our purpose. But the truth is that the soul of the IFP
is in the service of our nation, whatever form that might take. At
this juncture, the needs of South Africa demand that the IFP take up
the challenge of opposition politics, even more strongly than has been
the case in the 17 years of our democratic era. As South Africa grows
closer and closer to the ANC's final goal of political hegemony and
domination, a powerful voice of opposition is needed; a voice that
speaks with integrity and fearlessness, with honesty and insight.

That is the voice of the IFP. We have spent years navigating the
waters of governance, from the rapids of social need to the brackish
streams of bureaucracy. We know what can be done and how to do it. We
know what cannot be done and how to be honest about it. The IFP has
not lost sight of its mandate. In fact, if anything, the Local
Government Elections have cleared the waters and clarified the mandate
of the IFP. We must once again focus on providing moral leadership and
a voice of reason, to redirect South Africa's moral compass to true
north.

This we must do for the sake of the many who cast their vote for the
IFP on May the 18th, and the many who will suffer deteriorating
leadership because they did not. As I speak to the City of
Johannesburg District, I am cognisant of the fact that we maintained
support in Ward 65 and that many IFP supporters went to the polls to
vote for the IFP. As the President of this Party, I thank you for your
support. I thank you for remaining faithful to the ideals of the IFP;
ideals that we share with the people of goodwill. I thank you for
remaining steadfast even under the onslaught of lies and deception
created by our political opponents. I thank you for casting your vote
for the IFP. I remember some of our leaders who paid the price for
being members of this Party with their lives, when they were
assassinated here in Gauteng and in KwaZulu Natal, just before the
elections.

You are in good company, for across South Africa more than a million
votes of support were cast for the IFP, whether they were for an IFP
councilor, an IFP-run municipality or an IFP-led district. Voters were
given two or three ballot papers on which to make their choice, and
some 1.2 million times the people chose the IFP. I challenge anyone to
claim that the IFP is irrelevant or that our time is up. Such a claim
is laughable in view of the facts. We are again the third largest
political party in South Africa. Clearly the IFP has a crucial role to
play. It does not matter that our percentage was lower than it was in
previous elections, whether we like it or not, the more than 1.3
million votes put us where we were before as the second predominantly
black Party after the ANC.

What all of this means if that a great deal of work lies ahead for our
Party. We must accept the responsibility which the electoral result
has cast upon us and take up the challenge of opposition politics. We
must look to our new role and allow ourselves to become inspired by
the possibilities. We are entering radical, no holds barred
opposition, where every fight belongs to the IFP. We are not going to
wait until 2014 to regain our position. We have already taken up our
position and it is from here that we must fight.

Our fight is not against the ANC or against the NFP. It is against the
tide of wrongs that threaten South Africa. As such, in this fight, the
IFP is the champion of South Africa's democracy, Constitution, liberty
and values. I am here to ask you to take up this fight with the IFP,
so that together we can turn the tide on the mounting corruption,
ineptitude, greed and deceitfulness within our country's leadership.

We do not rejoice at the ructions that are taking place in the ANC-run
municipalities. We do not rejoice at the rift that is gaping within
the ANC leadership in the Mabhida Region in Pietermaritzburg. But the
main thing about it all is that all of these things have exploded over
the extent of corruption in the highest echelons of the leadership of
the ANC. The Tenderpreneurship disease has become an epidemic. Sadly
fratricidal deaths are now taking place. But all these sad happenings
revolve around CORRUPTION. Money it has been proved beyond any shadow
of doubt is the ROOT OF ALL EVIL!

Whether we speak in the local shebeen or in the House of Parliament,
IFP people speak about bread and butter issues. We know about everyday
problems like single parenthood, being jobless, HIV/Aids, the burden
of electricity tariff increases, fear for the future and despair over
criminality. We have not risen above the common plight of South
Africans. We do not see ourselves as above the law or untouchable.
Leaders in the IFP still stand hand in hand with the people we serve,
working and struggling together.

It was insulting, therefore, that the Premier of Gauteng, the
Honourable Ms Nomvula Nonkonyana, could call the IFP "a dead snake".
In fact, she travelled all the way to KwaZulu Natal from Gauteng to
hurl this insult. She was speaking at a gathering in Umlazi, where,
just weeks before, the NFP's representatives in the municipality had
rejected the ANC-NFP coalition and voted for an IFP municipal
leadership. They were quickly brought into line and, in a show of
strength, the ANC sent some of its big names to Umlazi to promote the
ANC-NFP coalition. The meeting deteriorated into a mudslinging
exercise, as ANC events are wont to do.

Still, it is surprising that the Premier of Gauteng would go out of
her way to insult the IFP when she has so much trouble to occupy her
in her own backyard. Service delivery protests continue even after the
elections and people are clearly unhappy with their ANC councilors.
This is a consequence of the list debacle prior to the elections, when
the ANC top brass unceremoniously removed from its election lists
candidates who were chosen by the people, and simply replaced them.
This caused such a furore that President Zuma had to step in with
promises that the ANC would sort out the candidates lists after the
elections.

On Mandela day, the Honourable Premier Ms Nomvula Nonkonyana had
demonstrations staged against her by ANC members in her own backyard.
My advice to her is that it pays sometimes to mind one's own business.
The people are not fools. If the ANC was intent on doing the right
thing, it would not hesitate to do it. It would not say, "Give me your
vote first, and I'll prove my worth later." The IFP has never condoned
violence and we do not advocate intimidation or the destruction of
property. We see the burning of two ANC councillors' homes in Soweto
as evidence that communities are desperate to be taken seriously by
the ANC. But the ANC has become impervious to the cries of the
unemployed, the poverty stricken, the hungry, the angry and the
desperate. There is a sense in the ruling Party that anything is
permissible because (a) they might not get caught, and (b) if they are
caught, they can deal with the fallout until the fuss dies down.

We have seen this again with the maladministration scandal over the
police headquarters lease. The Public Protector has called for
remedial action to be taken against National Police Commissioner
General Bheki Cele and the Minister of Public Works, Ms Gwen
Mahlangu-Nkabinde, over the dodgy procurement of leases valued at
R1.78 billion for buildings in Pretoria and Durban. We wait with bated
breath to see what Cabinet will do with the Public Protector's
recommendation.

Already the ANC Treasurer-General has tried to shift the
responsibility onto Parliament. But the Executive has never asked
Parliament to engage on any of the thousands of reports the Public
Protector releases annually. This is really just an effort to shirk
the responsibility of dealing decisively with guilty senior government
officials. The IFP has praised the Public Protector for pursuing this
investigation without fear or favour, and for bringing the findings
into the public domain before anything could be covered up. There is a
critical need for watchdogs over government that are invested with
both bark and bite.

The IFP has played the role of watchdog over the ruling Party for many
years. We disagreed with the ANC-in-exile when they diverged from the
original path mapped by the ANC's founding fathers in 1912 that our
struggle should be waged through non-violence. We have been more
faithful to the legacy of 1912 than even the ANC. Ironically, next
year will see the celebration of the centenary of the ANC and,
although much has been planned by way of presenting the ANC as the
sole liberator of South Africa, no role has yet been assigned to the
IFP. I will say more about this later.

Our own part in securing the demise of apartheid, which has been
acknowledged by former President FW de Klerk before the Truth and
Reconciliation Commission, and applauded by Presidents Mandela, Mbeki
and Motlanthe, is now being sidelined once again. I attended the media
launch of the centenary on the 15th of July and we heard the ANC
National Executive Committee member, Ms Jessie Duarte announcing that
the role of former PAC leader Mr Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe would be
commemorated as part of the centenary. That was good. As one
Independent Online journalist put it, anyone being allowed to share
the ANC's limelight is "a rare feat".

I have spoken to the ANC National Chairperson, and the IFP National
Council has directed a letter to her, emphasizing the importance of
the centenary as an opportunity to finalise reconciliation between the
ANC and the IFP. It would amaze me, but sadly not surprise me, if the
IFP were intentionally sidelined from the centenary celebration. There
have been efforts over many decades to expunge from the record of
history the truth about the IFP's role in the liberation of South
Africa. As former President Nelson Mandela admitted in April of 2002,
"We have used every ammunition to destroy (Buthelezi), but we failed.
And he is still there. He is a formidable survivor. We cannot ignore
him."

The ANC has invited political leaders of other parties to be part of
the celebration of the centenary of the founding of the ANC in January
1912. At a meeting that we had with the Chairperson of the ANC, HE Ms
Baleka Mbete on the 21st of June as members of different political
parties, I had the following to say by way of response to the ANC's
invitation to us to participate in the forthcoming celebrations:

"The centennial of the founding of the African National Congress is a
matter of no minor importance. It affects not only the ANC, but the
whole of the country. Therefore, I welcome this opportunity to begin a
dialogue on how this centennial could be best celebrated as an event
which does not belong exclusively to the ANC, but of which the entire
Republic and all its political parties may take ownership, if they so
wish.

This centennial is also too important an occasion to deal only with
the past, and not also with the future. If the centennial fails to
address outstanding issues amongst our parties and within our society,
a great opportunity will be missed. There will never be such a first
centennial again. We must use this centennial as a cathartic moment to
draw on the lessons of the past and bring together a final resolution
of all the outstanding issues within our society. The centennial
should be the moment in which the promise of liberation can be
coagulated.

As you all know, the founding of the ANC was somehow a family event
for me. My uncle, Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme, was the founder of the ANC.
I was very close to the Reverend Dr Langalibalele Dube, the first
President of the ANC. The Inkosi of Abasemakholweni in Groutville,
Inkosi Albert Mvumbi Luthuli, was my mentor, and there are many people
who credit me with his election as the provincial President of the ANC
when I came to the meeting with a number of state employees to support
his candidacy. Canon James Calata and Dr Wilson Zamindlela Conco were
also close friends and mentors, and I had the privilege of delivering
their respective funeral orations. (Inkosi Luthuli and Dr Conco)

I knew Dr Alfred B Xuma, the President General of the ANC, and was
entertained by him at his home in Toby Street in Sophiatown. We even
exchanged correspondence. President Nelson Mandela and President
Oliver Tambo and several other leaders of the ANC were my comrades and
colleagues in the ANC before 1979. Even when I launched Inkatha, I
consulted with Mr Oliver Tambo, and he approved.

I do not think there is anyone alive in South Africa today who can
more rightly than me claim roots in the extraordinary events of 1912.
Yet, there have been many attempts to sever the link between myself
and the events which gave rise to both my political action and the
existence of my Party. This has created a rift fuelled by lies and
misrepresentation. On many occasions, all the Presidents of the ANC
both publically and privately undertook to rectify the record and to
heal the rift.

Mr Cleopas Nsibande was the first to publically attest to the fact
that Mr Oliver Tambo, Inkosi Luthuli and other ANC leaders requested
that I not decline if Amakhosi of the Zulu Kingdom decided to elect me
within the framework of the self-government structures that the
Apartheid regime imposed on us. They stated that it would be in the
interests of our liberation struggle to prevent the balkanization of
the country into so-called independent mini-states.

Mr Nsibande called for reconciliation between the IFP and the ANC.
Deputy President Motlanthe echoed this statement at the funeral of Mr
Nsibande, adding that he and President Zuma were duty-bound to honor
Mr Nsibande's repeated requests that they meet with me "with a view to
normalize relations between the IFP and ANC". Nothing has come of this."

I must say what stands out is that in 1984, Inkatha Yenkululeko
YeSizwe, as it was then known, built a tombstone on the grave of Dr
Pixley Seme at Croesus cemetery, here in Johannesburg. We unveiled it
on the 14th of September 1984 and I was the main speaker at that
historic unveiling. How can anyone hope to obliterate all this
history? It is impossible to undo what happened. The National
Council decided on the 24th of June that the IFP should accept the
invitation to be part of these celebrations. As I have already said,
our National Chairperson is awaiting a response from the National
Chairperson of the ANC Ms Baleka Mbete as to whether we will and how
we are expected to do so.

As the founder of this Party, my legacy is intertwined with the legacy
of the IFP. Efforts to destroy me and efforts to destroy this Party
have gone hand in hand. Some of our opponents think they have won.
Some think that the May 18th electoral result has devastated the IFP.
But others are wise enough to know that the IFP remains for as long as
our ideals and our legacy continue in the hearts and minds of South
Africans. You have proven through the ballot box that the IFP still
lives. You have proven that we are still a force to be reckoned with.
I challenge you to take up the fight of the IFP as we enter a new era
of opposition politics.

We have now to double up our efforts to re-unite our members in the
IFP, who have been confused by the drama of the emergence of the NFP,
from within the IFP. We are the Party that cannot afford to sit back
until 2014. We need to gird our loins now, and mobilise our
membership. Reset up our branches. Expand our membership to what it
was in the 70s, 80s and 90s. It was membership that was spread out
almost throughout the territory of the Republic. Because of money as
a dominant factor, people tend to want the Party to do something for
them. They see the Party as a ladder to positions of influence and
affluence. They ask all the time what can the IFP do for them, and
not what they can do for the IFP. As we leave this meeting, I want
each one of us to ask ourselves individually and collectively, what is
it that we can do for the IFP to return it to what it was in all these
years. We are masters of our own fate, as one Poet put it. No one
will do these things for us. We can only do these things for ourselves.

We are far from done. The best is yet to come. With your support, the
IFP can turn the tide in South Africa. We are doing it for you, and
with you. Let us do it together.

I thank you.