Date: 04/04/2009

Source: Inkatha Freedom Party

Title: IFP: Buthelezi: Address by the president of the IFP at a rally in Umtata

I am delighted to be here with you today in the Eastern Cape. We gather
less than three weeks away from an epic election: an election which
promises to be a tipping point in our country's history.

Never before in our fifteen year old democracy have the stakes been so
high. Never before has there been such an opportunity to turn a failed
and tired government out of office. Never before has the political
opposition had a chance to redraw the politics of the country. We dare
not let this moment slip through our fingers. The time has come to build
a new majority around the politics of change.

The Eastern Cape is intimately tied up with the liberation struggle of
South Africa. To come back is, for me, to return to the scene of some of
the most defining moments of my life; indeed, when one truly came of
age. At the age of nineteen, I majored in History and Bantu
Administration at the University of Fort Hare.

I studied under Professor ZK Matthews, then the Cape Provincial Leader
of the ANC. I became a member of the ANC Youth League. My contemporary,
the erudite and brilliant Robert Sobukwe, was the then Chairperson of
the Fort Hare branch of the Youth League which had a countrywide
influence on the policies of the ANC. At that time, a young law student
by the name of Nelson Mandela was the ANC General Secretary. I joined
the ANCYL right there and then.

My uncle, Dr Pixely ka I Seme, who was the founder of the ANC, wrote a
letter to Professor ZK Matthews when I was rusticated from the
University for taking part in an ANC Youth League organised
demonstration against the then Governor General of South Africa, Mr G
Brand Van Zyl. I attended some lectures at the University of Natal after
my expulsion. Dr Edgar Brookes persuaded the Fort Hare authorities to
allow me to write my exams in Durban at the University of Natal.

Because I was rusticated from Fort Hare, when I was installed as Inkosi
of the Buthelezi clan in 1953, the Pretoria regime prescribed that I was
only an acting-Inkosi. On 6 September 1957, I was again reinstalled as
the Inkosi of the Buthelezi clan. Inkosi Luthuli and other ANC leaders
persuaded me to abandon my legal articles and take up my hereditary
position as Inkosi. They argued that this was in the interests of the
struggle we were waging.

In 1972, with the encouragement of Mr Oliver Tambo and Inkosi Luthuli, I
became Chief Executive Officer of the Zulu Territorial Authority and
then the KwaZulu government. As Chief Minister of KwaZulu, I prevented
unwanted independence being foisted upon the so-called "black homelands"
whereby blacks would have been deprived their first birthright ˆ
citizenship of South Africa. The strategy of the apartheid government
was to make black South Africans foreigners in their own country as soon
as they had accepted independence a la Pretoria.

After canvassing the views of Mr Oliver Tambo, Bishop Alpheus Zulu and
President Kenneth Kaunda of Zambia, we established a membership-based
organisation strongly rooted in the black communities: the Inkatha
Freedom Party. In August 1976, I met with the Justice Minister, Mr Jimmy
Kruger, who said that he would ban Inkatha if we did not confine our
membership to Zulus. I refused. The IFP has always been a home for all
South Africans. Our non-racial core was, in fact, the very opposite of
ethnicity and was way ahead of its time.

At this juncture, I must repeat my plea that we do not return to the old
politics of ethnicity. There has been an endless debate about the ethnic
fault-line in our politics: 'Zulu' versus 'Xhosa'. Is it not time, I
ask, that we, in the words of Saint Paul, "put childish things away"? It
is irrelevant if Mr Zuma is a Zulu or that his immediate two
predecessors were Xhosas who hailed from this region. In terms of the
competition of ideas and policies, ethnicity is irrelevant. It is the
policies and ideals we champion which matter.

Ethnicity was certainly far from my mind, when, at my first meeting with
the Prime Minister, Mr BJ Vorster, I urged him to release Nelson Mandela
and to lift the ban on the ANC and the other exiled liberation
movements. In my many public rallies, I quoted the writings of Mr
Mandela's 'No easy way to freedom'. The twilight struggle we fought was
long and arduous and it is still not won today. We have only achieved
the first part of our liberation.

The IFP aspires to lead South Africa into a second wave of democratic
renewal, deepening democracy and spreading prosperity among our people.
In this second wave, economic freedom must follow political freedom.
What do I mean when I speak of economic freedom?

Wherever I go in South Africa, local people tell me in no uncertain
terms what economic freedom means to them. The message is always the
same. They don't speak of summits, imbizos, targets and task teams. The
reason is because the daily reality of the majority of South African is
an existence of gut-wrenching poverty. Some of the most extreme
manifestations of poverty are found in this province.

South Africa's people need water. We need electricity. We want service
providers who treat us with the respect that clients of government
services deserve. We need accessible healthcare. We need access to
anti-retroviral drugs and medicine. We need affordable and safe public
transport. We people want law and order. We want safe streets. We want
effective community policing.

Our people need jobs. Our people want decent education for their
children. Our people want a future for their families. But more than
anything, our people want a government that is serious about all these
things. The IFP in government in KwaZulu-Natal demonstrated that it was
willing to take difficult decisions and we will not flinch from doing so
again in the future.

In 2002, the IFP instructed the former Premier of KwaZulu-Natal, Dr LPHM
Mtshali to roll out anti retroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child
transmission of HIV in defiance of the national health minister. We did
if for the simple reason that it was the right thing to do.

What will the IFP do if it wins power in the Eastern Cape? The IFP will
deliver short-term measures to improve the living standards of the poor,
including improved infrastructure, that is better roads, water, energy
and sanitation; a streamlined grant system, that is increased, more
transparent and means-tested benefits for the aged, children,
child-headed families, and carers of children orphaned by Aids; and
improved healthcare, that is better and more widely available local
preventive and curative care at minimal cost. Government needs to find
smarter and more efficient ways of delivering services.
In the long term, the IFP aims to equip the poor with the skills to
build for themselves a better life, including improved education,
resuscitated rural agriculture to ensure food security and sustainable
livelihoods; and municipalities and provinces as key role players in
addressing poverty with their powers and resources to deal with poverty
bolstered.

But, in the end, we cannot we wage the war against poverty by simply
dividing the existing pie up. We need to bake a much bigger pie for all
our people to share. This can only be achieved by growing the economy
and investing in our skills base.
We must never stop thinking about tomorrow. As a country, I sometimes
fear we have stopped thinking about the future. The best investment any
country can make is in the education of her children. Outcome Based
Education (OBE) is clearly not working as it should.

Once, rarely twice, in each generation there is a sea change in the
political landscape. The tide is turning against the ANC. The question
is: which party, if any, will benefit from this? Will voters'
dissatisfaction with the ruling-party translate into tangible support
for opposition parties? Or will voters' simply stay away?

I believe the South African people are hungry for change. The IEC has
reported that a record of number of voters', especially young voters,
have registered to vote. The challenge for the opposition is to mobilise
these voters' and ensure that they turn out to vote on April 22.

I stand before you today as a patriot who loves this country beyond
words. Let me speak from the heart. I am fortunate to have led a life
rich in opportunity and scope. And yet never before, even in the darkest
hour of apartheid, as the way forward seemed so uncertain. Today
challenges are somehow more nuanced and elusive. The Bible tells us that
"without a vision the people perish". When I survey the messages offered
by our political opponents, I ask: where is the vision? Where is the new
hope? Where is the promise of a better tomorrow?

Who will stand by South Africa during this time of trial? Who are the
visionaries to guide us into and through this vision? Are they the
current political dynasties with their roots in exile? Are they the
aspiring but not quite yet established elite middle classes? Is it the
racially defined and racially constrained business? Or is it our bloated
and inefficient civil service?

Who is to guide our country through the daily turbulences of political
life and the larger challenges that lie beyond it? Who is to provide
sensible direction? Who is to tell right from wrong? Who is to offer a
credible moral voice?

Once again, the IFP is called upon to provide leadership to a nation
which is not receiving the leadership it deserves and needs. My message
to the people of this province and nation today is that we are ready to
serve.

It is essential that we reaffirm the integrity and authority of our
independent institutions which are mandated to provide a watchdog role
over government. I am sure we all shuddered when the Scorpions were
disbanded, when the judiciary were maligned and when the office of our
Executive Head was treated with such contempt by elected leaders. There
is a climate growing that nothing is sacred and nothing can stop the
will of the few.

Yet in a democracy it is the will of the many that should prevail. I
question whether some of the legislation passed in Parliament really
reflects the will of the people. Clearly, given the choice, South
Africans would have built houses and empowered policing rather than buy
submarines. There are many ethical issues behind legislation, and I
often feel that opinion makers are failing to speak the same language as
the man on the street.

Much energy and political capital has been invested into declaring zero
tolerance of corruption in government, but we have yet to see evidence
of successful implementation. Success would mean reporting and
monitoring all allegations of unethical conduct, fraud and corruption.
It would mean protecting whistle blowers from victimisation,
discrimination and financial loss. It would accountability and feedback
on investigations into allegations. Let us make the change through the
ballot box.
We strive to win in order to serve. Our politics is not to be found in
the eloquence of our words, but in what we actually do. Politics is for
the purpose of action. There is nothing broken in South Africa that
cannot be fixed by the people of South Africa. The IFP wants to serve to
fix our broken society.
I have felt the frustration, the impatience, the urgency, the anger at
the waste of lives unfulfilled, ambitions stilted, hopes never achieved,
dreams never realised. Whilst there is one child still in poverty in
South Africa today, one pensioner in poverty, one person denied their
chance in life, there is one party that will have no rest, no vanity in
achievement, no sense of mission completed, until they too are free.
That party is the IFP.
I confidently assert that the IFP, which is the only opposition party
with a predominantly black support and a proven track-record in
government, has the long-term potential of governing the country. We
represent the political centre ground, rejecting the extremes of
centralised socialism and uncaring 'anything goes' capitalism.

We must move fast to improve broadband connections and rebuild school
classrooms, laboratories and libraries so children across the country,
can compete with children from Beijing and Bangalore for the high-tech
jobs of the future. My dream is that every girl and boy, irrespective of
their background, has the opportunity to go as far as their God-given
talents will take them.
And we are still not winning the fight against HIV/Aids. The next
government must invest in manufacturing generic medicines and work with,
not against, NGO's, trade unions, universities, philantrophic and
faith-based organisations. We have a vibrant activist community and we
need a government to show the will to make it work.

So my appeal to you today, is to cast your vote for the "tried and
tested alternative": the IFP. We do not define ourselves by what we are
against, but by what we are for. We are proud of our diversity and we
are equally are proud that we belong to one nation under one flag. We
stand for the fisherman in Port St Johns, the domestic worker in Umtata,
the café owner in Chatsworth and the board manager in Sandton. We stand
for jobseekers, students, and single parents too. We stand for people of
faith, and those of none.

All we ask for is a chance to serve. We believe our values of
solidarity, freedom and unity, and our principles and policies coupled
with bold leadership and political courage, can change South Africa for
the better. None of this will be possible, however, unless we secure
political power. Every vote counts and we do not take a single vote for
granted. I ask each one of you to take our message to your families, to
your workplaces and to your communities and persuade them to cast their
votes for the IFP on 22 April.

I thank you.