Date: 26/04/2011
Source: The Inkatha Freedom Party
Title: IFP: Buthelezi: Address by the president of the IFP, at a prayer meeting of the Umvoti Local Municipality, KZN

The Honourable Mayor of Umvoti, Councillor Ngubane; the Honourable
Deputy Mayor and Speaker; Honourable Councillors and distinguished
guests.

I am delighted to have been invited to join the Umvoti Local
Municipality in this prayer meeting in Njengabantu. Having just
celebrated the resurrection of Christ, we as Christians have much to
be grateful for and joyful about. Nevertheless, I am aware that many
of us still feel burdened by the vicissitudes of life. I feel it is
important that we strengthen one another with words of hope, and with
our prayers.

I therefore thank the Umvoti Local Municipality for arranging this
prayer meeting. I am pleased to see that many in this venue are of my
own generation, for it is always a welcome relief to spend time with
people who have experienced life to the extent that I have. Many of
you, like me, are parents and grandparents. Many of you have buried
loved ones and lost a great deal to the passage of time. I offer you
my sympathies, for I too have stood at the graves of four of my
children.

I thank God that I still enjoy the companionship of my wife. I am
deeply aware that God has blessed me by extending our time together.
After all, I am now well past my allotted three score and ten and am
living on Christ's bonanza. I draw a great deal of strength from my
wife. I have been in politics for more than half a century, and have
lived through some of the worst vilification and treachery that a
public figure can endure. My wife, God bless her, worries about me.
But her worry prompts her to pray, and a man with a praying wife need
never be concerned about tribulation.

Of course, trials will come. Even Christ said that life will be hard.
Not that it might be, but that difficulty is assured. But Christ also
exhorted us to be of good cheer, for He has overcome the world. Each
one of us suffers our own tribulation. I myself have endured Diabetes
for the greater part of my life, which restricts me to a diet that is
far from satisfying and dictates how much rest and exercise I must
take. Yet I count myself infinitely blessed when I encounter men and
women who have the courage to live with disability, and still smile.

I am in awe of your strength, because I know that we are no different
from one another. You were not born with a greater capacity for
patience, nor greater endurance than I. You have acquired the dignity
of being grateful for life, and I know it has not been an easy
journey. I have the greatest respect for you. I therefore wish to
commend the Umvoti Local Municipality for the work it is doing to
alleviate some of the pressure on the disabled and elderly people in
the community of Njengabantu.

This municipality, like many across KwaZulu Natal, does not have a
large budget nor endless resources. It must make do with a little,
because in South Africa the fiscus is distributed unevenly between
national, provincial and local government. Local government ends up
being the Cinderella of our economy, receiving the least while being
expected to serve the most. It is here, at local government level,
that services are actually delivered. It is here that many of our
people's constitutional rights are translated into responsibilities of
government.

Our municipalities are therefore operating under a tremendous burden.
I am pleased that Umvoti Local Municipality has shown sound financial
management and zero tolerance towards corruption. I trust that you,
the voters, are holding your leaders accountable. That is something
you must do every day, by insisting on being part of the
decision-making process, by staying involved and interested in
politics, and by supporting representatives who are doing a good job.
But the task of holding your leaders accountable is never more
important than on election day.

In our democracy, once every five years, the power to decide how
governance will be done is placed squarely where it belongs; in the
hands of the electorate. This is when you, the people, get to decide
whether your elected representatives have spoken with your voice and
served you well over the preceding five years, or whether it is time
to empower a different leadership. In some ways, local government
elections are more important even than national elections, for the
leaders you choose at local government level will interact with you
directly. They will be the ones to represent you before government;
they are your go-between and your champion.

I therefore urge you to vote on May the 18th to empower a leadership
that truly cares about Njengabantu and is willing to serve you well.
Voting is as much a responsibility as it is a right. Most of you will
remember the sacrifices we made to win the vote. Political
enfranchisement did not come easy, and we struggled for many years to
be able to make our mark on election day. Now that we have this right,
we must use it wisely.

I realise that many of you will not be able to stand in long queues on
the 18th of May. But the Independent Electoral Commission has opened
another opportunity for you to cast your vote. The elderly, ailing and
disabled are eligible to apply for the Special Vote, whereby an
electoral official will come to your home or the hospital to assist
you to vote on the 16th or 17th of May. However, if you wish to use
the Special Vote, you still need to register. Registration closes on
the 3rd of May. I therefore encourage you to apply as soon as possible
so that this opportunity will not be lost to make a difference for our
generation, and a difference for the future.

I believe that everyone in this room still has a valuable contribution
to make to the success of our country. None of us is past our sell-by
date. Indeed, there is no such thing in the life of God's people. I
have been called to leadership by lineage, tradition and destiny. But
I am no more important than any one of you. I too am a sinner,
sanctified by Christ. I am flawed, yet He uses me; for I am willing
and available to speak the truth and follow the hard and uphill path.

My role in the politics and history of our country has not been quiet
nor easy. But then I think of the early Church which caused riots
wherever it went. The disciples were called men who turned the world
upside-down. Christ Himself called the religious elite a brood of
vipers and white washed sepultures filled with dead men's bones. And
He did this to their faces, not behind their backs. The early Church
declared that Jesus was the Messiah and were not reticent to point out
that the leaders of the time had crucified Him. Their message was not
pretty nor diplomatic, but it changed lives and it changed the world.

I am willing to leave my own psychological comfort behind to advocate
a message that I believe is true and right. I believe Christ requires
that conviction of all of us, for the Christian message is not one of
universal tolerance. It is therefore not universally well-received. It
is, however, a message of redemption. Ours is the only religion in the
world that holds at its core the message of undeserved grace. There is
nothing we can do to earn it; it is freely given to those who believe.
How wonderful that we qualify, not because of who we are, but because
of the character of Christ.

I come to you today as a fellow believer, knowing that I am totally
dependent on God. I rely on the prayers of my brothers and sisters in
Christ to accomplish the tasks set before me. I hope that you will
remember me in prayer after today, and that you will pray for all your
leaders, for we need the inspiration of God to keep serving and
working and hoping, in an often challenging political environment.

I also ask that you will pray for the coming elections and for God's
intervention in this election campaign, to ensure that we do not see
unnecessary bloodshed and tensions. Let us pray for peace, and for a
free and fair outcome on the 18th of May. In this way, we will bring
South Africa closer to entrenched democracy. I fear that we have yet
to secure the gains of democracy, and democracy itself. We still have
a great deal of work to do as a nation.

But together we can do it. Let us build a partnership based on our
shared aspirations. Let us encourage one another in the most difficult
aspects of life. And let us pray continually for our nation and our
leaders, just as we pray for one another.

I wish to thank the Honourable Mayor for inviting me to Njengabantu
today. It has been refreshing for me to spend time with God's people.
You have inspired me to work harder and to never give up, even in the
face of age and adversity. There is much to be gained by experience in
years. At times, gratitude is all about perspective.

I thank you.