Date: 30/04/2011
Source: The Inkatha Freedom Party
Title: IFP: Buthelezi: Address by the president of the IFP, at an election rally in Okhalamba, Bergville

It is good to be with you all here at Okhahlamba today and I am
honoured and humbled to have your friendship and support as I
officially declare the intention of the Inkatha Freedom Party to
continue leading the Okhahlamba Municipal Council after the Local
Government Elections which are now less than a month away. These are
indeed challenging times for the town of Bergville and the surrounding
communities. The IFP has been in power in this municipality ever since
the current municipal structure was introduced more than a decade ago.
We are proud to have brought stability and development to this
previously neglected and underdeveloped rural area. And we have done
this against all odds, so to speak.

We have had to contend with insufficient funding municipalities
receive from the national fiscus and we have had to find creative ways
to ensure the day-to-day running of a municipality that could not
raise much in the way of its own revenue because the vast majority of
its residents live in abject poverty. Rather than being able to pay
for municipal services, most of the people who live around here rely
on the provision of free services. Some would find such challenges
insurmountable, but not we in the IFP! The progress we have achieved
in terms of provision of basic services and infrastructure is truly
commendable considering how little money we have had to spend on these
items in our successive budgets.

It is most unfortunate that, for a time, our good work was compromised
by a handful of self-serving individuals who abused their positions at
the helm of this municipality for personal gain. I will not mince
words when I denounce their despicable actions. These individuals,
among whom I count former Mayor VR Mlotshwa, had been democratically
elected to lead the Okhahlamba Municipality as Councillors on the IFP
party list only to betray their party's values and principles once
they were safely in power. This is by no means a unique story of
betrayal, nor is it an isolated example of corruption by power. A
nineteenth century British moralist and historian Lord Acton put it
aptly: "Power tends to corrupt, and absolute power absolutely."

The mismanagement of municipal funds and allegations of corruption
that resulted from the behaviour of these renegade Councillors did not
merely draw the ire of the IFP leadership but caught the attention of
the KwaZulu-Natal Auditor-General earning the IFP-controlled
Okhahlamba Municipality a string of unfavourable audit opinions from
the supreme audit institution in the province. As party leader, I had
spent a lot of time over those troubling days, consulting one-on-one
with dozens of Okhahlamba residents ? from prominent community and
church leaders, to business owners and schoolteachers, to
rank-and-file party members ? about the course of action the IFP
should take against the Councillors who have betrayed the trust not
only of their party but the community they were elected to serve.

These discussions were very eye-opening. Even before these Councillors
revealed their true colours by conspiring against the IFP with the
so-called 'Friends of VZ' ? a pressure group established to advance
the leadership ambitions of the then IFP National Chairperson VZ
kaMagwaza-Msibi, the IFP leadership had no choice but to expel them
from the party on the strength of their shameful performance in the
Okhahlamba Council. As things turned out, this decision has been
vindicated. The 'Friends of VZ' have since registered as a political
party under the unelected leadership of Mrs kaMagwaza-Msibi and many
of the former Okhahlamba Councillors who had given us so many
sleepless nights are now competing for votes in the upcoming elections
under the orange banner of the National Freedom Party.

Although this unfortunate episode has done a lot of damage to the
IFP's reputation on the ground and compromised efficient service
delivery in places like Okhahlamba, its resolution has meant that
today we know where we stand. For the upcoming elections, we are
bringing you candidates whom we have appropriately vetted during our
candidate selection process and about whose integrity and loyalty to
the party we have no doubts. By contrast, our opponents in the NFP are
offering more of the same - discredited individuals who previously
ran this municipality for their own gain rather than the benefit of
its residents and, in doing so, mismanaged and wasted precious
municipal funds. It makes me laugh when some commentators make the
case for the NFP as a party rooted in local government! What
experience does the NFP have in local government? The shenanigans
that ex-Mayor Mlotshwa did to promote his own interests.

I am aware that individuals like the former municipal leadership at
Okhahlamba are one of the reasons why people like you are
disillusioned with politics and with politicians. We live in a cynical
age. Our political leaders too often play on our vulnerabilities and
our fears or exploit our differences for their own personal and
partisan gain. In doing so, they miss real opportunities for advancing
the welfare of those who put them in their positions in the first
place. Forget the NFP for the moment and consider its big brother -
the ANC. After seventeen years of ANC government in our country and
seven years in our province, I would like to adapt the ANC's election
slogan of "working together we can do more" to "working together we
should have done more". In Okhahlamba you are facing the ANC and its
clone, the NFP. A vote for the NFP is a vote for the ANC.

Corruption and cadre deployment have caused so many billions of
taxpayers' money to be squandered that ordinary South Africans are
suffering due to the resultant lack of delivery. Local government in
our province is in trouble largely because the government persists in
denial about the true state of local government in KwaZulu-Natal.
Instead of addressing the gross underfunding of local government,
financial woes of municipalities and the lack of critical skills that
hamper service delivery, the government focuses only on what can best
be described as an appearance of service delivery. I find it amusing
how all of a sudden delivery speeds up ahead of an election and how
all of a sudden public infrastructure which communities have had to
wait for years magically appears for a handover in the run up to an
election.

We need a national and provincial government that assist local
government to improve its financial status, and we need to ask,
despite millions being spent on enhancing municipal revenue by the
provinces, why this has borne no fruits. We also need to ask why
millions that were set aside to enhance critical skills in local
government remain unspent by the Provincial Government. Local
government delivers crucial services to communities and also delivers
important services on behalf of provincial government. However, it
still remains the step child of national and provincial governments.
If serious attention is not given to the functioning of local
government - and soon, we will be faced with more service delivery
protests ahead of the local government elections. The recent incident
near Ficksburg where a service delivery protestor was shot dead by the
police has come to symbolise a failed ANC-run municipality within a
failed ANC-controlled state. Andries Tatane, a local activist, took to
the streets against the lack of basic services in his community and he
paid for this with his life at the hands of the state police. None of
this could have happened where the IFP is in charge.

I strongly believe that we can solve the problems experienced by local
government by doing two things, namely:

1. Restore proper financial management in our municipalities; and
2. Appoint qualified officials in specialised posts.

Solutions to the associated challenges will follow. I believe that the
main focal point of the department should be to restore service
delivery by restoring proper financial management and controls in
municipalities. Without money municipalities will not be able to
deliver the services expected of them. We need skilled, professional
career local government officials and not deployed cadres. This leads
directly to tender and other forms of corruption. We need people in
positions that can do the work while empowering the previously
disadvantaged South Africans.

The success in local government rests on labour, in other words, the
quality of our human resources. In order to make the endless
turn-around strategies work in local government, we need a stable
political environment with the backing of skilled officials. I want to
use this opportunity to honour those many employees in local
government ? and they know who they are - who are doing good work and
who do not stray from the right path. We have witnessed first-hand
here at Okhahlamba that the temptation to abandon the mandate of the
people and pursue personal agendas is only too great. Unless we ensure
that every elected Councillor and every appointed official emulates
their example, we will never enjoy an effective and efficient local
government that would benefit everyone in South Africa.

With decades in power at local level in KwaZulu-Natal and most
recently in control of the province's 32, mostly rural and
underdeveloped, municipalities, the IFP has demonstrated its ability
to govern effectively, efficiently and with integrity and compassion.
Unlike others who only talk about a better life for all, we have
genuinely delivered services for all who reside in our municipalities.
Unlike others who only care for the select, politically-connected few,
we have brought tangible benefits to the workers, the entrepreneurs
and the unemployed alike. We believe it is the role of government to
ensure that everyone, irrespective of income or community standing,
has access to the basic and social services.

This is why we have implemented indigent policies and provided rates
rebates for those vulnerable citizens who can meet the cost of
municipal services halfway or cannot meet it at all. This is why every
one of our municipalities has provided targeted relief for residents
unable to afford basic services such as clean water, electricity and
sanitation. For those residents who can afford to pay for our
services, our municipalities must ensure that the application of rates
and service charges is fair. We have done this consistently in two
ways. Firstly, all IFP-run municipalities make annual tariff increases
as equitable, gradual and predictable as possible to limit
disagreements and prevent unpleasant surprises. And secondly, all our
municipalities make sure that residents are billed correctly and only
for the services they consume.

We also believe that a municipality's role does not end with the
provision of basic services. Local government is central to the
development of our local communities. It is where government and
people interact in a very concrete and immediate way. It is where
government physically encounters poverty and has a capacity to
alleviate it. Our focus here has always been on helping our people
help themselves. The path out of poverty does not lead through
unchecked provision of social grants, which is a mere stop gap
solution, but through sustainable employment. But governments cannot
create jobs by themselves unless they pile up jobs in the public
sector, which is about the only sort of job creation we have seen from
the ANC government. Jobs can only be created sustainably in an economy
that grows as a result of entrepreneurial activity. Our cities,
townships, informal settlements and deep rural areas are the potential
engines of job creation.

That is why we are determined to make our municipalities places of
choice for established as well as emerging businesses. When businesses
open and expand in our municipalities, they create jobs. We must not
only create conditions that attract investment but ensure that
businesses operate in a corruption-free environment. The current
municipal tariff structures charge businesses disproportionately more
in rates and service charges than ordinary residents without offering
entrepreneurs any incentives in return. And the lack of transparency
that surrounds tenders and potential conflicts of interest of
municipal employees and Councillors acts as a deterrent for business.
Both of these practices need an urgent review and we are determined to
effect the necessary changes.

I believe in a politics of hope and opportunity. I believe ? because I
know this from experience ? that public service has the capacity to
bring people together to enrich the common good. If nothing else, I
want my party's candidacy in the upcoming Local Government Elections,
and its time in office should it be elected to represent the people,
to demonstrate that politics and public service can be an uplifting
and creative force for improving our communities and leaving this
world a better place for our children. Here is what I have learned in
talking with people from all walks of life over the past few days
since I have been on the campaign trail:

I have observed that people are tired of being promised the same
promises over and over and that they eager for change. They see
taxpayer rands being used for questionable or downright wasteful
purposes, and wish for greater fiscal responsibility in government.
They see poverty amidst plenty, and wish to expand opportunities for
people to become self-sufficient.

They see traces of corruption in every sphere of government, and they
wish democratic institutions whose job it is to fight it would work
harder to ensure that crime does not pay.

They see arrogant and incompetent people in positions of power, and
they wish access to those position were open to qualified individuals
with a calling to serve others. They see important decisions being
made with too little input from the citizens who will be affected by
those decisions, and wish for more openness and participation in the
decision-making process.

I, too, see these things and I, too, wish to change them. It is
tempting sometimes to just resign ourselves to the idea that there is
little we can do to change the way things are. But the message I have
brought to Okhahlamba today is one of hope and opportunity. At the
same time, I realise that my party cannot implement any one of its
policies and accomplish any one of its goals without you. Without you,
we cannot run an open and efficient local government that works with
you and for you. Without you, we cannot stop mismanagement, fraud and
corruption. Without you, we cannot prioritise spending on basic
services and infrastructure where these have been neglected or open
more municipalities for business.

But we can do it with you. Vote IFP. It's about YOU!

I thank you.