Date: 09/12/2008

Source: Inkatha Freedom Party

Title: IFP: Buthelezi: Speech by Mangosuthu Buthelezi, President of the Inkatha Freedom Party, at the IFP Presidential and KZN Premier Candidates Launch

Distinguished guests ...
Comrades ...
Friends.

We have reached a tipping point in South Africa where the dividing lines between the ruling party and the State have, to all intents and purposes, collapsed. And where matters affecting the ruling party have become matters of State affecting the very future of our Republic. A government, all-consumed by internal dissent, has lost sight of all this country was meant to be. South Africa not merely for a privileged elite to treat as their own plaything and power base. But a South Africa for all its people. This is what we fought for . This is what the majority of this country's people have been denied. But this, after the 2009 elections, is the South Africa that we will help make real.

A poem that I learned in school has recently been playing in my mind. It is by the English colonialist poet Rudyard Kipling who, I'm told, actually recited it on this very stage. The poem is called " IF ", and one night the realisation came that it is actually a strategy with which the IFP will capture the political high ground in this coming election. With thanks to Mr Kipling, I will use extracts from the poem. It begins ...

If you can keep your head when all about you are losing theirs...

When a true and unbiased history of South Africa is one day written, I have little doubt that 2008 will be remembered as the year in which the ruling party lost its ability to govern. The reason is because party politics have become all-consuming of attention ...

And reaction instead of action has become the order of the day. This is not comment on the removal of President Mbeki by a relative handful of party oligarchs ...

The removal of a president who is accountable for his actions to parliament; never mind to 45-million South Africans.

Nor will I comment on the formation of COPE other than to repeat what I wrote in a recent IFP newsletter, namely ...

"The IFP finds it refreshing to hear constructive criticism of some past government policy failures from former ANC representatives, instead of standard declarations of the ruling party's solid infallibility."

No. Rather, I would like to cite the 2 events of 2008 that are definitive in the ANC losing its head.

The first is the month of xenophobic attacks on black non-South Africans, where the South African Government was totally incapable of declaring meaningful condemnation and taking speedy action.

The second is the Government's squeamish impotence to act against the tyranny of Robert Mugabe.

Both are blights against the democratic tradition of this country that we all fought for. Both are blights against our national character of Ubuntu-Botho that will take years for the African community of nations to forgive and forget.

Yes, "If you can keep your head while all about you are losing theirs" ...

If we can keep our heads ... meaning our focus ...

If we can keep our resolve to convert literally hundreds of thousands of those who empathise with IFP values and policies into those who will vote IFP. Then success is assured ...

And the trend which has seen the IFP win by-election after by-election in the face of the stiffest ruling party opposition will continue ... But on a much grander scale!

Let me continue with another thought from the poem ...

If you can wait and not be tired by waiting, Or being lied about, don't deal in lies. Or being hated, don't give way to hating.

Well, we certainly know about waiting! Of all of the human emotions, it is probably the most frustrating ...

Whether it be waiting for a messiah ...

Or for a taxi ...

Or for an electorate to realise that the South Africa they've been seeking ...

Already exists in a set of policies and values ...

Plus a proven ability to govern.

Have we not always been resolute while waiting to fulfil our destiny of serving our country? Have we not known that our time will come when others have wasted theirs?

On the theme of being lied about ... We are the first to acknowledge our own imperfections.

But we have never used lies to advance our agenda. Oh yes, we know what it is to be lied about. We were victims of a deliberate and meticulously staged propaganda war ... Despite thousands of our comrades and members losing their lives, we were the ones falsely branded as the aggressors. And, indeed, those who know the truth are even now saying nothing to correct this abuse of historical fact ... And this in itself is a lie!

The opposite of lying is honesty ... Where we have always been honest with people with regard to delivery and expectations. And while this is perhaps not the best thing when people are yearning for good news, it underscores the fact that we are a party of principles.

South Africa, in modern history, is home to two enormous and tragic lies. The first was Apartheid. The second was that lie which resulted in the death of more than 300 000 AIDS victims who were denied ARVs ... Where, for more than a decade, the people of South Africa were fed a deliberate lie about the cause and treatment of HIV! I have had enough of lies in my life ...

As I have of hatred. We have all been through too much violence, vilification and intolerance ... But I think what characterises the IFP, as it did Inkatha, is that hating has never been part of our character. We condemn hate speech and never, ever have fallen - or will fall - into the temptation of using it to our political advantage.

In watching the recent American presidential elections, I cannot recall Barack Obama ever saying a bad word about John McCain. Which pleased the electorate and helped win him office. I wonder if they - and you know who I'm talking about - will ever come to this realisation? Especially Julius Malema!

But let me return to the poem:

If you can dream and not make dreams your master; If you can think and not make thoughts your aim.

The call to action here is very clear. We have done our dreaming and our thinking is complete... Now is the time for action.

As a party, we have always been great dreamers and visionaries. In the context of being visionaries, let me quote some words that were written in 1990 ...

"Quite clearly South Africa is in the process of transition ... moving towards a true multi-party democracy ...

"And in this historic ripeness of time, it is imperative that all patriots put the good of South Africa first and now demand of all political parties that they do so too."

If you recognise these words, you will know that they begin the preamble to the Inkatha Declaration of 1990 ... And that their call to action is as imperative today as it was back then. Even more so considering the crisis this country presently faces! But what about our ability to think clearly? I wonder how many of you were present in January when we launched our party's values and policy platforms? They were assembled as a consequence of directly speaking to literally thousands of IFP members ... They were debated, modified, resubmitted and debated again ... And I know of no other South African political party that has so clearly enunciated its beliefs ... No other party that will go into the 2009 elections with values and policies that have totally percolated through its membership.

So again let me say ... We have done our dreaming and our thinking is complete ... Now is the time for action.

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue, Or walk with kings, nor lose the common touch.

It used to be said that keeping your virtue in politics was a sure-fire way to not winning elections! ... But not any more. Not after the entire South African electorate is recoiling with disgust at corruption, nepotism and promises that turn out to be lies!

Let me ask some very pertinent questions:

Where is the corruption in the more than half of KwaZulu Natal's municipalities that are in the IFP's hands? The answer is that while no one is perfect, we are second to none!

Where are the magnificent mansions with garages full of fancy cars owned by IFP members corrupted by the spoils of government? The answer is that we are not a party of plutocrats living on the spoils of crony capitalism!

How many IFP members are under investigation by the Scorpions? The answer is not one!

How many IFP members of parliament were implicated in the Travelgate scandal?

You know the answer ... Again, not one!

The IFP is the party of Ubuntu-Botho ... The party which enshrines caring and sharing above all other values. And the day it loses its contact with the people is the day it no longer has a reason to exist!

Which brings me to the last lines of the poem ...

If you can fill the unforgiving minute; With sixty seconds' worth of distance run; Yours is the Earth and Everything that's in it; And - which is more - you'll be a man my son.

Did I mention that the poet, Mr Kipling, was a male chauvinist? So let me include all the women of the IFP women into that thought ... Which is the best strategy of all ... Making every moment count.

For I promise you... One day before you know it, it will be election day. And heaven help any single one of us if we say to ourselves ... "Gee I wish I would have done that!"

Before every election, I have asked every IFP campaigner to make every second count. Before every election, I have counted down the days, and even the hours.

But too many people have let time slip ...

Have wasted days, have neglected to do what they were meant to do.

And this has cost us elections!

There has never been an opportunity like the one that lies before us in 2009.

Are we going to waste it? I repeat ... Are we going to waste it?

We have in place our structures; our campaign committees ...

We have in place our people ...

We have in place our strategy ...

And that leaves just one person who may, or may not be, in place and all set to go.

Do you know who that person is?

That person is you!

I am looking at you, I am talking to you ...

That person is you!

Look at the person beside you ...

Look at the person on your other side

In between those two persons ... is you!

Now let me ask each and every one of you the most important question I have asked today ...

Do you commit to doing your best?

I'll repeat the question, and make your answer a solemn vow ...

Do you commit to doing your best?

Good.

Then let us all ... together ...

Do it!

Amandla!