Date: 26/03/2009

Source: Inkatha Freedom Party

Title: IFP: Buthelezi: Address by the president of the IFP at the Solidarity Trade Union Congress

I am honoured to attend this Congress of Solidarity and to speak as an
opposition leader in politics. I have a long-standing good relationship with
Solidarity, as we share the same values and the same vision for South Africa's
future. Although many of you know me and my Party, the Inkatha Freedom Party,
let me take this opportunity to introduce the IFP as the tried, tested and
trusted alternative in 2009.

The IFP is the second largest predominantly Black political party in South
Africa, and the third largest party in Parliament. While our support base is
historically centred in KwaZulu Natal, the IFP is a national entity with
branches and members across South Africa. We are the only political party with
experience in governance both before and after 1994.

During apartheid, I served as the Chief Minister of KwaZulu and, for 18 years
before democracy, I headed an administration that was untainted by corruption
and governed with excellence on a shoestring budget. In our poorest
communities, we managed to build schools and clinics, houses and businesses.
When across South Africa the ANC instigated violence, civil disruption and the
burning of schools, the IFP championed education, justice and development.

I believe the IFP took the right path towards South Africa's liberation. With a
long-term vision for a country in which everyone could claim a stake, we
continually worked for a stronger, more stable, more prosperous South Africa.
The day the then State President FW de Klerk announced the end of apartheid, he
pointed to my rejection of so-called independence for KwaZulu as the determining
factor that finally made apartheid untenable.

As South Africans came together to negotiate a democratic settlement at the
World Trade Centre, the IFP fought hard to have provinces included and
recognised in the Constitution. The ANC is characterised by a pursuit for
complete control, which was already evident when it had itself declared the
sole voice of the people and promoted itself as the sole liberator of South
Africa. The ANC's plan to centralise government so that all power would be held
at the top, by a few, runs contrary to the IFP's policy of federalism.

We won the fight for provinces. In terms of our Constitution, provinces have the
authority to determine much of their own policy and legislation even in fields
like education, policing and health care. But somehow provinces have been
disempowered under the present government and remain mere conveyor belts of
uniform laws passed in Cape Town. The IFP's vision is to empower provinces to
come up with tailor made solutions to their own specific challenges.

After 1994, the IFP was mandated by the electorate to govern KwaZulu Natal, and
we put into practice the aims of devolved governance. Under an IFP government,
KwaZulu Natal saw anti-retrovirals rolled out across the province to prevent
mother-to-child transmission of HIV/Aids, and we saved thousands of lives. At
the national level, the ANC had to be forced by a court order to fulfil this
basic responsibility of a government to its people.

In KwaZulu Natal, we were able to build on the developmental programmes put in
place under my leadership and we continued to invest in small businesses,
community development projects and subsistence agriculture, while pursuing
international investment in large industry. Today, KwaZulu Natal is a hub of
industry and development. But many of the policies we put in place were halted,
ignored or reversed by the subsequent ANC government in KwaZulu Natal.

Where I established the KwaZulu Finance Corporation to secure specialist
assistance for developmental projects. We also established Ithala Bank and
today there are allegations of corruption and mismanagement at the Bank. The
fallow land and non-productive farms that mar KZN today are a far cry from the
green revolution we promoted, in which provincial government would assist
budding farmers to shift from land intensive, non-labour intensive and low
added-value products, such as sugar cane, to labour intensive, non-land
intensive and high added-value crops, such as spices, nuts and seasonal fruits
which could be sold in the northern hemisphere's markets.

There are countless examples of how the IFP led a provincial government to find
solutions to its own challenges, as enabled by our Constitution and mandated by
our people. But the programme of centralisation of the ruling Party has
overtaken South Africa and South Africans are increasingly being dictated to by
a far removed, inaccessible leadership. This is not true democracy. It is the
beginning of a one party state in which the voice of the people is overpowered
by the empty slogans of unity and a better life for all.

For the first ten years of our democracy, I served as the Minister of Home
Affairs and witnessed firsthand the power-plays that characterise the ruling
Party. Of course, that obsession with power has now been exposed at Polokwane.
The unceremonious unseating of our country's President and the sudden exodus of
15 Ministers and Deputy Ministers, including our Deputy President, spoke volumes
about the rift in the ANC and the fact that a new leadership is preparing to
take the reins of our country.

I have served as Acting President on more than 20 occasions and I hold the
greatest respect for the position of Executive Head. It worries me deeply that
ANC members could burn images of the President while he was still a sitting
President, and face no censure from ANC leadership. It worries me that the
presidential incumbent has corruption, fraud and money laundering charges
shadowing him, and he may be denied his day in court to clear his name. It also
worries me that South Africa's President is no longer above party politics and
will represent a party rather than a nation.

It is for this reason that I proposed a constitutional amendment in 2007 to
separate the Head of State from the Head of Government, giving South Africa
both a President and a Prime Minister. Most established democracies are based
on a parliamentary rather than an executive system. The separation between head
of state and head of government has been tested for 350 years. In it, the
President rules but does not govern, while the day-to-day activity of
government is left to a Prime Minister.

This places the President above politics and above reproach. In the domestic
arena he would balance and supervise the dynamics of politics and the
functioning of government institutions. In the international arena, he would
represent the entire country, attending to the many ceremonial functions of his
position. This would free the Prime Minister to attend to the tough issues of
government such as unemployment, crime, poverty, education and healthcare. The
Prime Minister would serve at the will of the parliamentary majority, making
government more accountable and strengthening the power and relevance of
Parliament. That means giving a louder voice to the opposition.

It is remarkable how Parliament has repeatedly adopted important and urgent
constitutional amendments in a matter of weeks. Yet discussion on my amendment
was delayed into the following year and was ultimately rejected. Our
constitutional democracy is weakening and if we fail to divert from the
chartered course of the ruling Party, we are bound for a country in which
independent institutions are not trusted, leaders are not servants, Parliament
is not relevant, provinces are not empowered and justice is not done.

South Africa has been engulfed by the global economic downturn and our
industries are already shedding jobs. We are in desperate need of a broader
skills base, but Affirmative Action has closed the door on a vast treasury of
skills, experience and expertise. In 2004, the IFP signed a Memorandum of
Understanding with Solidarity in which we rejected the implementation of
Affirmative Action to the extent that it discriminates against any South
African. While we must redress the social injustices of our past, there must be
a shared understanding of what the finish line looks like and where it has been
set. Without a clear vision, we will never fully emerge from the shadow of
social injustice.

There are serious problems in our country's macroeconomic policies and the IFP
has been bold in pointing them out. South Africa is in desperate need of a more
flexible labour market and a free market economy, but instead it is almost
impossible to run a business under the strict regulations imposed by
government.

The skills shortage in South Africa is a matter close to my heart. As the line
function Minister in the field of migration, I headed South Africa's policy and
legislative transition from pariah status to international player in terms of
the movement of people, goods and services. I appointed a Task Team of
international and national experts to determine South Africa's immediate and
future needs to ensure economic growth and competitiveness. Out of this, a Bill
was drafted that would effectively close the door to illegal migration while
flinging it wide open to skilled foreigners, investors, international
corporations and tourists.

I will not go into the tragic complexities of what happened to my Bill at the
hands of a Cabinet intent on keeping tight control over every aspect of South
Africa. Suffice to say that what we have now is a far cry from what we need. It
still baffles me that, in the past few years, government's list of National
Scarce and Critical Skills omitted doctors and nurses, as well as city
planners, developmental economists and ICT training professionals; while it
focused on such skills as Combinatorial and Computational Chemists. Please
advise me if you know what that is.

South Africa lost the skills and investment of a million White South Africans
who emigrated after 1994. I know that AfriForum's Come Home Campaign is
assisting expats who wish to return to South Africa and I applaud you for this
work in bringing our people home. But I also know that returning South Africans
are receiving little assistance and very little incentive from Government to
make this move.

Government's attitude to South Africans living abroad is that they have deserted
us and we should desert them. I can say this because we have just won a court
battle to allow South Africans abroad to vote on 22 April 2009. I intervened in
that case as a Friend of the Court based on my expert knowledge as the former
Minister of Home Affairs. This evaluation of Government's attitude towards
expats is not my own creation, but comes from court documents in that case.

Right now, the global recession is making the emigration option unviable. As we
head towards the 22 April elections, I urge you not to look for the way out of
South Africa, but to look for South Africa's way out of this crisis. We are in
a crisis. It is a crisis of leadership, of morality, of security, social
justice and productivity. We are in a crisis, and we need to make a decision
that will change the looming consequences. That decision will be taken at the
ballot box on 22 April. Your vote is your call for change.

A vote for the IFP, however, is not a one time event. The IFP does not believe
in a system of government that gives citizens political franchise once every
five years, only to alienate them from their leaders for another five. The IFP
is fighting for a system in which leaders can be held accountable on a day to
day basis and will truly represent the people they serve. The IFP has worked on
the ground among real people since 1975. We didn't leave South Africa during
apartheid. We haven't changed our name or our stripes or our principles. We
know that ordinary South Africans deserve access to their leaders as the people
who are serving them.

I encourage you to join hands with the IFP to strengthen our democracy,
strengthen our provinces and strengthen our shared hope for a country that
reflects our own values. I believe in serving with integrity and my 50 year
track record stands as testimony to my character and principles. These are the
principles on which I founded Inkatha and they are the same principles that
still guide the IFP.

I thank you for affording me the opportunity to address this Congress and I wish
you all the best for your further deliberations.