Date: 14/02/2009

Source: Inkatha Freedom Party

Title: IFP: Buthelezi: Address by the President of the IFP at the party's KwaZulu Natal manifesto launch

It is with great pleasure and excitement that I stand once again before
the people of KwaZulu Natal to renew the ancient covenant between the
IFP and the people of this Province.

A new generation of voters is finally coming to the fore that bears
little or no memory of past suffering, struggle and humiliation. This is
good for the country, but also requires that we place this launch in the
much larger perspective of our long standing presence and commitment in
this Province.

In the history of South Africa this Province of ours is and shall remain
special for its sake and the salvation of South Africa. The IFP is the
destiny in which the speciality of this Province is embodied

From the base of KwaZulu Natal, Inkatha has promoted democracy and
stability in South Africa for over thirty years. From KwaZulu Natal,
Inkatha can and will rescue our ailing democracy and re-establish our
Republic which is now in jeopardy. It is of great importance for KwaZulu
Natal that the IFP regains control of the provincial government; but it
is of even greater importance for the whole of South Africa that KwaZulu
Natal be governed by the IFP; --so that a measure of checks and balances
can exist in our country to prevent it from falling down the present
slippery slope towards autocracy, a one-party state and corruption.

Even though born and bred in KwaZulu, since its inception Inkatha has
belonged to the whole of KwaZulu Natal and operated in the whole of this
Province, even when this Province was deeply divided by the racial
lines of apartheid. We crossed those lines and brought together the
people of KwaZulu Natal into a hope for change which jumpstarted South
Africa's transformation towards freedom and democracy. Change and hope
sprang out of KwaZulu Natal then because of Inkatha, and now the hope of
change must again spring out of this Province to save the whole of our
country.

The next elections are going to be about the hope for change. Everyone
agrees that things must change, because too many failures have
characterised the ANC's performance over the past fifteen years. The ANC
itself acknowledges that something went terribly wrong, as it saw it
fit, to fire the President of the country before the end of its term:
--an unprecedented action in the post-liberation history of Africa. The
ANC itself is invoking and promising this change. But to fulfil this
promise, they would need to change themselves. People of this Province
know well that leopards do not change their spots. Year after year, the
ANC has approached the electorate making ever-increasing promises. Year
after year, the ANC has failed to deliver on these promises. We have
witnessed a plethora of false promises. We are now faced with yet
another promise that the ANC leopard will change its spots.

The next elections cannot be about promises. The next elections cannot
reward the party waging the biggest promise. The next election must be
about real change and must reward the party with the most reliable hope
for change. The IFP embodies that hope for change. The IFP is the tried
and tested alternative. We are the party people can trust. We are the
tried, tested and trusted alternative. This is not a promise, it is a
fact. The country is in too dire straits to buy into promises. It must
rely on facts. The fact of the matter is that the IFP has proven its
good track record on all fronts.

When we ruled the KwaZulu Government, we promoted real development and
real service delivery in spite of being the most under-funded government
in the whole of South Africa. Because of my unwavering opposition to
apartheid, the Zulu people received the lowest per-capita share of State
resources than anyone else in South Africa; --and this imbalance was
only corrected by 2004, ten years after liberation. In spite of having
little money, we made the money we had go a long way.

The little money we had in the Education Budget was used to give our
teachers the best salaries we could manage and our children the best
text books we could source, leaving no money for the actual buildings
which were constructed by the communities themselves with their hands if
needed; --and in the spirit of self-help and self-reliance which I have
promoted throughout my life. It is little wonder that KwaZulu
consistently produced the best matriculation results of any comparable
area.

KwaZulu also produced real long-term development through the KwaZulu
Finance Corporation, which I established and which has now been renamed
Ithala Development Corporation. Decades later, the industries which the
KwaZulu Finance Corporation established are still viable and strong and
contribute to maintaining employment levels and productivity. This is
because there was no corruption in the old KwaZulu Government and
financing was not given to friends and cronies, but to those who could
help real development. We established the ITHALA Bank which is unique
in the whole of South Africa. We did so in order to enable our poorest
of the poor to access funding which banks in South Africa would not give
to them. But today that bank has been abused on the basis of cronyism.
It has been pillaged by families of MECs and senior civil servants.
Recently we saw Mr Nxedlana who was its CEO removed and sent to Richards
Bay. And we saw the MEC for Finance install Mr Sipho Shabalala the Head
of Treasury, a previous beneficiary from the ITHALA Bank to act as its
Chief Executive Officer

It is a bold statement for me to make that in the KwaZulu Government
over which I presided there was no corruption, because I myself may not
have been aware of what was happening in all Departments. Yet I make it
with confidence, thinking that, had there been any corruption, the army
of my enemies who for the past fifteen years have tried to vilify me
would have surely found it and exposed it. The greatest accusation made
was that as a token of respect, totally unbeknown to me the KwaZulu
Government was watering the flowers and doing the gardens at the house I
live in, as I never lived in any house provided by the government. And
the arrangement was made by the Department without me requesting that it
does so. And as soon as the ANC government took over the MEC decided to
send home those who watered the flowers. Some are paid even now because
of labour laws while sitting at home.

It is no surprise that when in April 1994I turned the KwaZulu Government
over to the new democratic Republic, it was the only government which
was not in the red. The then Minister of Finance, Derek Keyes,
congratulated me, publicly stating that our Government's financial
administration could be held up as a lesson for the national Government.

It is not only within KwaZulu that Inkatha provided its pre-1994
contribution. Democracy started from KwaZulu Natal. While the rest of
the country remained deeply divided across ethnic lines, under my
initiative and leadership, we formed the Buthelezi Commission which
brought together all the people of this Province, irrespective of race
and religion.

The work of the Commission committed all of us to working beyond the
parameters of apartheid and led to the epic experience of the
KwaZulu/Natal Indaba. The whole of the Province, including its
university professors, businessmen, religious leaders and cultural
icons, rose and defied the boundaries of apartheid to voice a unified
vision of shared governance for this Province.

This vision was so compelling and so strongly supported by the unanimity
of the people of this Province, that the apartheid Government could not
ignore it. Even though they refused to grant us the Joint Legislative
Assembly for KwaZulu Natal we requested, they were forced to concede to
a Joint Executive Authority, which was the first interracial government
in our country.

The IFP carried its commitment to good governance into the province of
KwaZulu Natal when in April 1994 gained the absolute majority in the
KwaZulu Natal Legislature. The IFP is now committed to regaining the
absolute majority and establishing a proper and fitting government for
this Province. We must do so not only for the sake of the people of
this Province of ours, but for the sake and benefit of the whole of
South Africa. A properly run IFP government in KwaZulu Natal is the
check and balance South Africa needs to prevent tyranny and prove that a
competent, efficient and dedicated alternative is indeed possible.

As it now stands, after fifteen years of ANC failures, broken promises
and shortcomings at the national level, South Africa rightly despairs
about its future. Matters are made worse by the rapidly approaching
economic crisis and recession, and the degrading of our environment on
account of global warming. The future is indeed bleak. But, there is
hope if there can be change. And this hope begins from KwaZulu Natal.

When last Monday I spoke in response to his State of the Nation address,
I criticised President Motlanthe's belief that our Constitution is
strong and is holding. I stated that our Constitution is in peril and
our democracy in jeopardy. In his reply, President Motlanthe took
exception to my statement. Obviously, to him it is not a matter of
concern that provinces have been reduced to puppets of the central
government, there is no longer a divide between the ruling Party and the
State, and corruption reigns supreme.

There is much more to democracy than the mere and unfettered rule of a
majority out of control. Democracy is about checks and balances.
Democracy can be very dangerous without liberty, especially when it ends
up serving a few rather than delivering to the many. When asked about
the difference between democracy and liberty, one of the main founding
fathers of the American Revolution, Dr. Benjamin Franklin, famously
explained that democracy is about two wolves and a lamb voting about
what to have for dinner; --while liberty is about a well-armed lamb
objecting to the vote.

When the Constitutional Court approved our final Constitution, in spite
of its having substantially reduced the power of provinces, it
recognised that the provincial lamb was forced to lay side-by-side with
the national government's lion. Therefore, it is not my own analogy to
look at provinces as lambs; --yet KwaZulu Natal is a well-armed lamb
ready to object to falsely democratic processes that contemplate turning
our province into a dinner served at the national Governments orgy of
power, corruption and incompetence.

Ours are not weapons of destruction, like guns and swords, for we are
armed only with the strength of our convictions, our faith in the
Constitution and the integrity of good governance. Our integrity, our
track record and our love for South Africa are the only weapons with
which we shall defend and enforce the liberty of our country, and those
which will ensure that we shall prevail.

When in 1994 it gained its absolute parliamentary majority, the IFP
shared the task of governing with the ANC. It governed under the
extraordinarily difficult conditions of the post-1994 environment, in
which the reconciliation of the people of KwaZulu Natal and the
eradication of violence were top priorities. We achieved that
pacification while we conducted a professional and serious government.

When at the next election the IFP moved from an absolute majority to a
relative majority, we continued to govern with the ANC to promote
reconciliation. It soon became evident that the ANC and the IFP have
different cultures as far as governance is concerned. This difference in
cultures jeopardized the IFP's capacity to do more.

In 2004, the IFP lost its majority in KwaZulu Natal. As the ANC
acquired a relative majority, it first governed with the IFP and then
excluded it from the government of KwaZulu Natal. The ensuing
catastrophic results speak for themselves. Since the IFP has left the
governance of the Province, corruption and lack of delivery have
skyrocketed and government has progressively disintegrated. It is now
time for the IFP to regain the governance of KwaZulu Natal and put right
what went wrong.

The difference between the two parties is clear and lies in the ANC's
top-down versus the IFP's bottom-up approach. The ANC has foisted
national uniformity onto KwaZulu Natal, while the IFP believes that each
province should develop the best of what it can in terms of policies,
initiatives and undertakings; --so that the formula of our national
governance emanates from the composite actions of all that is good and
successful in South Africa. We aim at the sum of successes, while the
ANC at compounding failures.

The IFP fought to have provinces in our constitution and wishes to
maximize the value that provinces can contribute to make South Africa a
success. The rebirth of South Africa may spring out of KwaZulu Natal if
the IFP receives an unqualified mandate to govern it and govern it
properly. If not, the ANC approach of emasculating and eventually
annihilating the policy contribution of provinces will succeed; --and
provinces will effectively remain what they are now: mere administrative
implementers of what is decided nationally; --with no need or use for a
provincial legislature which passes laws. Under these circumstances a
vote for the ANC on the provincial ballot is really a wasted vote.

The IFP government demonstrated the value of provincial autonomy when,
under the leadership of the then Premier Lionel Mtshali, it distributed
life-saving anti-retroviral drugs to prevent the transmission of
HIV/Aids from mothers to their newborn babies in defiance of the
national government. This saved hundreds of thousands of lives. In the
rest of the country, the ANC-controlled governments were prevented from
taking similar actions until the Constitutional Court had to order them
to do so. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost because of
negligence and sheer blind and obtuse stupidity in what history will not
fail to recall as a silent genocide. This genocide was stopped from
KwaZulu Natal because of an IFP government which could intervene in the
Constitutional Court proceeding, exposing the central government a lies
that there was no administrative capacity to deal with the problem.

Similarly, under IFP rule KwaZulu Natal had the best education system in
the country which constantly proved its learners capable of obtaining
the highest scores. Since the ANC took it over, it has been a tragic
story of endless failures and disasters, ranging from the distribution
of textbooks to the administration of schools and organization of
classrooms, which has led to the failure of the KwaZulu Natal education
system alongside the rest of the country.

The framework of autonomy which the IFP has sought for KwaZulu Natal is
not merely to do things differently, but first and foremost to do the
same things better. There is a great deal of good in some of the ANC and
national policies, which could benefit the people of South Africa if
their implementation were freed from the inefficiency, incompetence and
often blatant corruption associated with them and left in the hands of
competent IFP administrators.

The IFP not only promises to establish a government which will implement
better policies, but first and foremost promises to implement existing
policies better. For too long the ANC has said one thing and done
another. For too long good policies have remained just words on paper
to be discussed in endless seminars and workshops with no tangible
benefit for the people. So much more can be achieved for the people of
KwaZulu Natal by merely doing what one says. The next election must put
an end to false promises and bring back the sense of integrity which has
always characterized an IFP government.

Our Premier-Candidate, the Honourable Mayor Zanele kaMagwaza-Msibi well
embodies this values and the entire IFP track record. She has her own
excellent track record of good administration at the helm in one of the
largest and most complex government structures of South Africa, the
district municipality of KwaZulu Natal. She has proven to be a tireless
worker in the service of the people. She is tried and tested and can be
trusted to lead the alternative KwaZulu Natal now needs. Our provincial
Manifesto aptly describes her exceptional qualities and skills. She
will bring the IFP and this province into the next generation of
successes.

Under the Premiership of the Honourable kaMagwaza-Msibi, the IFP's
paramount policy for KwaZulu Natal will remain that of getting KwaZulu
Natal to make policies again, rather than merely going along willy nilly
with national policies. This does not mean seeking to differentiate
everything in KwaZulu Natal. On the contrary, many national policies are
suitable for our Province. Our effort is that of having a critical
approach to what is developed nationally to determine whether it suits
our Province or whether reasonable and necessary grounds exist for our
own provincial legislature to adopt our own provincial law to do
something better for our Province. This will enable us to have in
KwaZulu Natal the best of what governance in South Africa has to offer.

For this purpose, under the Premiership of the Honourable
kaMagwaza-Msibi, the IFP will revitalize the centrality of the
provincial parliament and the analytical and policy-making capacity of
both the provincial government and its legislature. As part of this
effort, we will assert the powers that the Province has under the
Constitution which have been openly neglected by other provinces or
within the context of national legislation, such as the important powers
relating to consumer protection and the environment. All provincial
powers thus far neglected will be exercised to enhance delivery and get
the people of KwaZulu Natal much more out of the government structures
and elected representatives which they are paying for. Under the IFP
Premiership of the Honourable kaMagwaza-Msibi, the people of KwaZulu
Natal will get the most anyone can get from a province. A vote for
anyone else on the provincial ballot paper, would be a vote for less.

The IFP will rid government of corruption, incompetence and
inefficiency. There is no point in relying on any political promise or
espousing any specific policy for as long as the government machinery
called upon implementing and serving the people of this Province is
rather bent on serving political leaders rather than our citizens. We
need to re-introduce the separation between the State and the political
parties and enforce a stringent culture of service within all provincial
organs of State. We can no longer tolerate government being administered
as a tool to spread contracts, favours, patronage and opportunities
among friends, cronies and political clients. We can no longer forgive
the inefficiency and incompetence of civil servants who are
ill-qualified for their jobs. We can no longer turn a blind eye to the
latent corruption. Under her Premiership, the Honourable
kaMagwaza-Msibi's first priority will be to clean up; --and I promise
that as she comes into office this lady will carry with her a big and
powerful broom with which to sweep out all the rot which has accumulated
in the provincial government in the past five years

She will maintain the IFP record developed under the stringent
premiership of Dr LPHM Mtshali, a well-known disciplinarian with no
tolerance for mediocrity or extravagance. The Honourable kaMagwaza-Msibi
will be no softer Premier, and under her stewardship the IFP will
re-introduce performance auditing so that deadwood can be identified and
cut off. Under her premiership an even more stringent attitude of no
tolerance towards incompetence and corruption will be adopted

We can have a new beginning in KwaZulu Natal. We can reintroduce reason
and progress. We can let once more hope flourish. All we need is to
bring the IFP to power once more. We have done it once and we shall do
it again in the next elections. The IFP is the tried and tested
alternative. This province has known me and my colleagues for 60 years
and knows that it can trust me. As I have done in the past, I will
always keep a watching brief on what is done in this province. This
province can trust the IFP. The IFP is the tried, tested and trusted
alternative this province needs to give the hope for change South Africa
craves.

Make it so, vote IFP

Make it so, vote IFP

Make it so, vote IFP

The IFP is the tried, tested and trusted alternative this province needs
to give the hope for change South Africans crave.

May God protect and inspire us in this endeavour. May God bless KwaZulu
Natal. May God watch over, protect and bless South Africa.