Date: 27/04/2011
Source: The Inkatha Freedom Party
Title: IFP: Buthelezi: Address by the president of the IFP, during a meeting with the Emkhondo community, Mpumalanga

Today is a very historic holiday as it is our Freedom Day. It was on
this day that we had our first democratic elections on the 27th of
April 1994. This is now about 17 years ago. Today in the current
local government elections we have youngsters who will be voting for
the first time. We have a whole generation that did not experience all
the humiliations of the racist and apartheid era before 1994.

For those of us who went through the brutal system of apartheid, today
means quite a lot. Although, today all the horrible things that we
experienced as people of colour, are like just a bad dream or a
nightmare. While it is difficult to forget we nevertheless forgive
those of our compatriots who were at the helm when we were so
brutalized.

For many years before the dawn of freedom I kept on stating that when
we achieve our political emancipation, it will mark the beginning of a
more difficult struggle for our economic freedom. The fact that when
we struggled for our emancipation we were also fighting against our
economic marginalization means that, we carried both these struggles
does not make our struggle against the gut-wrenching poverty which the
majority of our people are still struggling against today, less
challenging

While our national and provincial elections are significant, the local
government elections we are having next month are even more important
for each one of us. It is about service delivery right where you are
in your local government.

It is very much about you. And I mean each and every one of you. It is
about the daily basic needs of each one of you. It is about water, it
is about your electricity, it is about the education of your children.
This is an election which affects us very directly. It is a pity that
the lion's share of the budget goes to the national and provincial
governments. The resources in the fiscus are skewed in favour of both
national and provincial governments rather than local government.

The trouble is that with so much political illiteracy in our country
most of our people tend to expect too much from local government than
it can actually deliver, in terms of its miniscule budget.

In a situation where national and provincial government is under the
governance of a different party and where local government happens to
be under a different party there is a lot of conflict that results
from the ignorance of the different roles of the three tier-levels of
government. I have noticed that there is deliberate exploitation of
this ignorance of our people. When the national and provincial
governments deliver to the local population what the people are
entitled to, I find that those who are at the helm at national and
provincial levels deliberately try to give the impression when they
rightly deliver services at national and provincial levels as if they
are being more generous than the local municipalities. In this way
the municipalities are given a bad name as if they are failing to
deliver as they should. This is an issue where apples are not being
compared with apples.

We realize that in most democracies people tend to loathe
participating in local government elections. As a result population
participation at the level of local government tends to be minimal.
South Africa is no exception in this particular case.

It is extremely important that leaders should regard it as their duty
to constantly encourage the voters in South Africa to participate in
the election by using their votes. We unfortunately struggle in a
society which is corrupt and the fact that we have such high
unemployment further discourages our young population from exercising
their right to vote.

I am always honest enough in my politics, especially as someone who
was in government, to state that as a country there are many things
which government has done since 1994. But most unfortunately these are
a drop in the ocean of the vast needs of our previously disadvantaged
sections of the population.

Unfortunately, corruption in our country has reached high levels in
South Africa's public life. The corruption by those who are elected
to serve the population tends to mask the good that is done. This
makes it extremely important for us to make sure that we elect people
of integrity and not people who fall into the category of
tenderpreneurs. But sadly this kind of corruption seems to be the only
popular game in town.

The experience of what has occurred with the kind of corruption we
have seen ever since we had our first local government elections has
not given us lessons to do something drastic to avoid the embezzlement
of taxpayers' money that occurs at all levels of government. This is
what increases apathy as far as participation in local government
elections is concerned.

The duty of all voters is to see to it that the people you vote for
are people of integrity, who will not fall into the temptation of so
much corruption that exists in our country today.

We find that even at the level of exercising the vote there is
corruption. I can say without any fear of contradiction that there has
not been one single election in South Africa which has taken place
without any corruption. From 1994, I can recall many complaints that
we lodged into the Independent Electoral Commission (IEC) which were
not addressed. Each time these shenanigans were addressed because of
some technical reasons. Some technical reasons are raised by the IEC
either that the time for lodging the complaint has elapsed or some
other technical reasons why the IEC does not investigate some of the
complaints that have been raised since 1994.

The IFP recently raised a very serious complaint, and took the matter
to the Electoral Court. For reasons which were not caused by
negligence on the part of the office-bearers of the Party, the Party
failed to meet the deadline as far as our candidates list for the
Umzumbe Municipality are concerned. The Electoral Court accepted our
bonafides and found in the Party's favour and requested the IEC to
register our Umzumbe candidates for the current local government
elections. The Independent Electoral Commission has decided to appeal
to the Constitutional Court. For a fledgling democracy like ours, one
would have expected the IEC to accept the judgement of the Electoral
Court. There was no cheating on the part of the Party. One would have
expected the IEC, just like the Electoral Court to treat the matter on
its merits.

It is important for our members to make sure that we have Party Agents
at every polling station. For years I have been emphasizing this
without any response from members of the Party. There is an added
danger this year of what is called the special vote. Previously, there
was a special vote only in respect to the national and provincial
elections. As a result of the representations if POPCRU the law has
been amended to include a special vote even for local government
elections. This special vote is open to a lot of abuse. In fact, in
the past in relation to the national and provincial elections, a lot
of corruption took place as far as the special vote is concerned.
While there are good reasons for the use of the special votes such as
serious illness, pregnancy, the conditions of the disabled, etc who
are unable to go to vote on the 18th of May, but this is open to
abuse. It is clear from past experience that this special vote lends
itself to a lot of corruption. As you are all aware voter registration
for the special vote remains open until the 3rd of May. If for any
reasons you will be unable to visit your polling station on the 18th
of May, you can apply to cast your vote on the 16th or the 17th of
May. The Independent Electoral Commission will assist you, even in
your home if necessary so that you will be able to have your say. So
please do not miss this opportunity.

Come out and vote. I have over the years found that the IFP is very
incompetent when it comes to this issue of training and putting up
Party Agents at every polling station as the ruling party does. It
serves no purpose for the IFP to squeal afterwards that we were cheated.

I know that you will rightly complain that it has taken us too long to
come to you as the people whose vote and support we need. This has
been caused by the role that our former National Chairperson Ms Zanele
kaMagwaza-Msibi has played. She has allowed herself to be used by the
ANC to wreck the IFP as they have tried to do over so many years. This
whole thing started in 2009. As you know the Party did not do so well
in the 2009 general elections. We discovered that our branches were
either dormant or dead. When we tried to give time to the setting up
of branches, there emerged a group of malcontents who called
themselves "the friends of VZ". When this group emerged our then
Chairperson Mrs kaMagwaza-Msibi told us both in the NEC and in the
National Council that she had nothing to do with "the friends of VZ".
She protested that they used her initials without her permission as VZ
stood for her two names Veronica Zanele. She even threatened to take
them to court. "The friends of VZ" became anarchists within the Party.
They would break up meetings of our branches and some of them even
shot our members of the Party who attended her meeting at Enseleni.
One of whom had his leg amputated. Some of our members were actually
killed in Durban, at Emtshezi and in Gauteng. The National Council
then decided to investigate "the friends of VZ" and also to find out
if they had anything to do with our National Chairperson. The National
Council invited our Chairperson Ms kaMagwaza-Msibi to attend a meeting
of National Council where she had the opportunity to clear her name.
Instead of attending that meeting she decided to sue the National
Council before the High Court in Pietermaritzburg. This followed a
case by some of "the friends of VZ" who took the Party to the High
Court and Madam Justice Pillay dismissed their case with costs. There
was a case in the High Court against us as the leadership of the Party
by some men who because of our poor showing in the 2009 general
election were unable to make it to the KwaZulu Natal Legislature and
in Parliament in Cape Town. The case was heard on the 12th of November
2010 and Judgement was delivered on the 17th of January 2011. It was
heard by Mr Justice Patel. He dismissed their case with costs. In
other words the High Court made it clear that we as the leadership of
the IFP had done nothing contrary to the provisions of our constitution.

When this happened our Chairperson decided to found her political
Party under the name of the National Freedom Party. We in fact
discovered that this Party had been registered in October 2010. In
other words while our Chairperson was a member of the Legislature in
KwaZulu Natal, paid by the IFP an IFP Member of Parliament's salary
she was already a leader of another political Party. This shows that
she has no integrity as that amounts to her stealing that money from
the IFP.

This is the kind of person who now thinks that she can lead a Party
which is financed by our old enemy the ANC. I tried to have this
matter sorted out between us privately by raising it with President
Zuma and later with Deputy President Kgalema Motlante. Nothing was
done. I then decided to raise the issue in Parliament during the
President's State of the Nation Address. I laid before Parliament
evidence which consisted of sworn statements by the Mayor, a Speaker
and a member of the Municipal Council. President Zuma did not refute
any evidence I brought before him. He merely complained that when he
invited me to his residence in Durban on the 16th of July 2010 where
he suggested that I should retire, he said that he thought it was a
confidential matter between us.

The NFP and the ANC are one and the same thing. A vote for the NFP is
a vote for the ANC. About this there is no doubt. The evidence I
presented in Parliament included confidential documents in which the
ANC was urged to assist Ms kaMagwaza-Msibi. The reason why we only
come before the electorate now is because of our Chairperson Ms
kaMagwaza-Msibi and her friends and I wish to express our apologies to
our members in Mpumalanga for letting them down in the manner this
tragedy has played itself.

I feel ashamed of what our office-bearers did in not submitting the
names of our candidates in time. The fault was with our office and it
was with the fault of the Political Oversight Committee and some of
our leaders. I felt strongly that I should come up here to apologise
for these inexcusable blunders. I thank you for listening to me for so
long. We need every vote from each and every member of the IFP who
registered to vote during the registration period.

Ends.