Change is brewing in Mtubatuba. You can feel it in the air. Over the past few
months, many government officials and politicians have visited this community,
and suddenly clean-up projects and other government programmes have become
highly visible. There is a good reason for all this activity. In 10 days’ time,
on Wednesday the 6th of May, 19 by-elections are going to be held across
Mtubatuba and an entire new municipal council will be elected.

That is an unusual event. Usually we see by-elections in only one ward of a
local municipality, when a councillor resigns or a seat becomes vacant. But
something unusual happened in Mtubatuba, and the opportunity has opened to
completely change who runs the municipality, how it is run, and what level of
service you will receive from now until next year, when Local Government
Elections are held.

I have come here today for four reasons –

One is that I want you to know what has happened in Mtubatuba that has opened
this opportunity, so that you will be equipped to make a wise political decision
on the 6th of May.

Two, I want to propose a partnership between you and the IFP with clearly
defined goalposts and a clearly defined timeframe.

Three, I want to warn you about the battle that lies ahead to get your voice
heard and respected in Mtubatuba. It’s a battle we’ll fight alongside you and on
your behalf.

And finally, number four, I want to welcome new members joining the IFP, and
welcome back those who are returning to their political home.

Let us begin, then, with our first task: understanding what has happened in
Mtubatuba. Over the last few years, your municipality has fallen apart. It has
failed to serve you and has wasted money. Those who claimed to represent you
have spent their time in political power games, bickering and mismanaging
resources. For the first time, Mtubatuba has seen service delivery protests,
because you have been forced to raise your voice just to be heard.

Why has all this happened? It has happened because two political parties, both
in bad faith, jumped into a coalition agreement immediately after the 2011 Local
Government Elections. Neither of them had any intention of serving in a genuine
partnership. They simply didn’t get enough votes to take control of the
municipality alone, so their leaders hastily arranged a marriage of convenience.

The ANC went into it thinking they could discard the NFP as soon as possible.
They just needed NFP councillors to make up the numbers. It wasn’t the first
time they’d used the NFP. Indeed, they supported the NFP’s formation because
they hoped to use it to annihilate the IFP – something they haven’t managed to
do in almost forty years of trying. Again, they have not succeeded. One can’t
help but remember the words of Mandela, who said about me, “We have used every
ammunition to destroy him, but we failed. And he is still there.  He is a
formidable survivor.  We cannot ignore him.”

The NFP’s leadership, on the other hand, went into this marriage of convenience
thinking that the ANC would carry them along. After all, the ANC owed them
politically for splitting the IFP’s vote in the Local Government Elections. But
the NFP’s councillors were not so happy. After 2011, many NFP councillors
complained that they’d never been consulted about this marriage of convenience
and they didn’t want to work with the ANC. Almost immediately, NFP councillors
in places like Mtubatuba, Umlalazi, Umtshezi and Hlabisa began voting against
their coalition partner, in favour of the IFP.

This rocky start to the ANC/NFP coalition did not improve, because the intention
behind it was never to serve, deliver or create good governance. It was simply
to grab power. Within a year, municipalities taken over by the ANC/NFP coalition
bore the hallmarks of failure. Jozini was in trouble. Mkhanyakude was in
trouble. Zululand District was in trouble. Indaka was in trouble. Abaqulusi was
in trouble. Umlalazi was in trouble. Nongoma was in trouble. uPhongolo was in
trouble. And, yes, Mtubatuba was in very turbulent waters.

Instead of delivering on all the promises they had made before the elections,
the ANC and the NFP were running Mtubatuba into the ground. It was not just that
they couldn’t agree politically and were locked in power struggles. They
mismanaged the finances of this municipality to such an astounding degree that
the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs had to place
Mtubatuba Municipality under administration.

In other words, provincial government had to take over where local governance
had failed. The centre of governance was moved further away from you, rather
than being brought closer, as should be the case in a thriving democracy

Yet even under administration, things didn’t improve. And you felt it. Your eyes
were opened to the incompetence and poor leadership of the ANC, and their
partner, and as soon as by-elections started happening, support started flowing
back to the IFP.

In every by-election since 2011, the electorate has spoken clearly through the
ballot box. People are calling for a return of the IFP. The IFP won by-elections
in Mtubatuba, in Ulundi and in Nongoma, where we increased our percentage of the
vote. We won in Nqutu and increased our percentage by almost 20%. We won in
Umtshezi, and also took uPhongolo from the NFP.

We won for a second time in Nongoma and increased our percentage of the vote. We
again increased our share of the vote in Nqutu. We took Hlabisa from the NFP,
and we won in KwaMashu more than once. Indeed, in one by-election we got more
than twice the votes of the ANC and far more than three times the votes of the
NFP. That speaks volumes.

The IFP even won Nkandla, the hometown of the ANC President, where the
electorate unequivocally asked the IFP to lead. South Africans are rejecting
poor leadership everywhere and are asking the IFP to return.

Each of these by-election victories is important. But the by-elections that are
taking place in Mtubatuba on the 6th of May are possibly more important than any
of them. Because in Mtubatuba you are not just replacing one councillor and
changing one seat in the municipal council. You’re choosing a whole new
leadership, all on one day. That means you can take this municipality away from
those who have failed you, and elect a better leadership: the unified, driven
and experienced IFP.

Earlier this year, the MEC for Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs
announced that the Municipal Council would be dissolved and all 38 councillors
were relieved of their duties. This precipitated 19 by-elections in Mtubatuba.
The MEC blamed the breakdown in the Municipal Council on “poor leadership”,
“internal bickering, maladministration and poor financial management”, “with
unauthorised, irregular and wasteful expenditure”. The municipality, she said,
had been largely dysfunctional since 2012.

I have a question. If this municipality has been dysfunctional for more than
three years, why are you only now being given the chance to change things? Why
are you only now asked your opinion through the ballot box? Mtubatuba should
never have had to endure four years of self-serving, incompetent, bad faith
representatives. You should never have been forced to engage in service delivery
protests just to be heard. When did you ever have to do that under an IFP
administration?

When the IFP administered Mtubatuba there was a partnership between you and the
IFP. We governed together, sharing ideas of what was needed in Mtubatuba and
together ensuring that service delivery could take place, even when resources
were scarce.

That brings me to my second reason for visiting Mtubatuba today. I want to
invite you to re-enter that partnership with the IFP.

There is just one year to go before Local Government Elections. I want to
propose that you give the IFP your mandate to rebuild Mtubatuba. Give us your
vote now, on the 6th of May, and then watch us carefully. Watch what we do in
one year. See if we deliver. One year from now, if your partnership with the IFP
has worked, we can strengthen it through the Local Government Elections. But if
we haven’t served you the way we should, you can fire us.

There is, really, nothing to lose in voting for the IFP on the 6th of May. But
there is much to be gained.

On the other hand, Mtubatuba will suffer a tremendous setback if you vote for
those who have already failed you. I know that both the ANC and the NFP are
telling you they could do better if they governed alone. Each is blaming the
other for their failed marriage. But the truth is that it takes two to tango.
They have both failed the people they serve. They have both failed you. Neither
of them has been willing to set aside political ambitions for the sake of
service delivery. Neither of them has been willing to focus on your needs,
preferring instead to focus on who said what to whom behind closed doors.
Bickering and backstabbing have paralysed this municipality.

So when they claim they could do better if they governed alone, you should ask
yourself why they didn’t do their best in the four years you have given them.
They don’t deserve another chance, and they certainly don’t deserve to get all
the power when they failed you so miserably with half the power. Don’t let their
rhetoric fool you.

Right now, as parties vie for your vote on the 6th of May, all sorts of tricks
will be used, not just empty rhetoric. I want you to know what kind of battle
you are facing to get your voice heard in Mtubatuba. That, as I said, is the
third reason for my visit today. I think some of us are still unaware of the
tricks that are used to secure votes at election time, and you allow your vote
to be bought very cheaply.

In every election since 1994, and in every by-election, there has been electoral
fraud and deceit. There is a misguided belief within the ruling party that power
should be kept in the ANC at all costs, even if that means compromising
electoral freedom. The IFP has raised specific incidents and general patterns of
electoral fraud with the IEC on many occasions. When the vote is manipulated,
democracy is subverted, and your voice is ignored.

We don’t just raise these concerns when our opponents win. We raise them even
when we win. When the IFP won a by-election in Nongoma, I still wrote to the
Chairperson of the IEC drawing her attention to eyewitness accounts of the NFP
bringing people from Mtubatuba and other districts to the polling stations in
Nongoma. Some were identified as non-residents, yet the police said there was
nothing they could do as these people were on the voters’ roll. They had been
registered under false addresses. Nothing was done to prevent them from voting.

That is not the first time this kind of fraud has happened. It has become
widespread and is practiced on a large scale. I therefore urge you to be
vigilant, to ensure that people are not brought in from outside Mtubatuba to
vote in the May 6 by-election. You know the people in your ward. If you don’t
recognise someone, or you know they don’t live in Mtubatuba, tell an electoral
officer, tell an IFP party agent, tell the police. Voter fraud is a criminal
act. It disrespects your right to have your vote decide your leaders.

Why should someone who doesn’t live in Mtubatuba get to decide who should lead
Mtubatuba? If they’re brought in to vote, you can be sure their vote has been
bought.

There is another form of deception that I want you to be very aware of. In the
past few months, since it was decided that the leadership of Mtubatuba would be
up for grabs, government officials have suddenly descended on Mtubatuba with all
sorts of state-sponsored programmes and projects. Provincial Government has
donated outdoor gym equipment. Provincial Government has held community
discussions on xenophobia. Provincial Government has committed R1.7 billion to
infrastructure development.

But provincial government is not the ANC. I want you to be very clear on this.
When government comes here, it is not the ANC coming here. Government uses your
money to do what they are constitutionally mandated to do. When government
officials bring programmes and imbizos here, they are doing the job of any
government. Whether it was the IFP in government or the ANC in government,
government would be required to perform these functions for you.

What is interesting is that when the ANC is in government, government ignores
Mtubatuba until there’s a chance they might lose your support. When an election
is looming, as elections are now, government officials are suddenly all over
Mtubatuba.

It’s not your local councillors delivering these services. It’s provincial
government and national government. Why have your local government
representatives failed you so completely? Efficient democratic governance is
when you and your local representatives work together closely every day,
regardless of whether its election time or not, to address local issues and fix
local problems.

That’s why the IFP has always advocated governance from the ground up. We move
governance closer to the people, putting it in your hands.

The ANC would have you believe that they are doing all these things for
Mtubatuba. But in truth, government is simply doing – at last – what it is
supposed to do. Thus, if we woke up tomorrow with the IFP in government, you
would still get the R1.7 billion that provincial government has committed to
Mtubatuba to improve infrastructure and revamp the CBD. That money is coming to
Mtubatuba from government, not from a political party.

The only difference would be, if the IFP were administering it, that money would
be spent without waste, without tender fraud, without mismanagement and without
inflated costs. It would be spent efficiently, achieving exactly what it was
meant to, on time, for your benefit.

That is one thing our opponents can’t get away from. They can’t explain away
financial mismanagement in Mtubatuba, blaming it on coalition politics. Money
has been wasted in Mtubatuba, just as it has been wasted in countless
municipalities run solely by the ANC. Across South Africa, 90% of municipalities
are failing to get a clean audit report. Across South Africa, an ANC-led
administration is failing to root out corruption, failing to deliver services
and failing to fulfil the endless promises they make to the electorate.  All the
protests that are taking place throughout the country, occur in  ANC
administered municipalities, because of the ANC‘s failure to give adequate
service delivery.  Mostly because of corruption.

The solution for Mtubatuba is clear. We need to get Mtubatuba back into
partnership with the IFP. You know that the IFP stands for good governance,
accountability, integrity and servant leadership. You know the values of the
IFP. It is these values that attract people of goodwill to our party. We don’t
make empty promises. We earn your trust through our actions. And forty years of
consistent action have made the IFP worthy of your trust.

I want to thank those who are returning to the IFP today for remembering the
IFP’s values. I know that it is this that has brought you home. I applaud you
for not becoming apathetic and disillusioned about politics. Having seen what
our opponents are like, one could understand if you were tempted to give up on
political activism. Instead, though, you have thought carefully about your
contribution and where it could best be made. Why should you be denied the right
to make a contribution, just because you’re in the wrong party? How wise you are
to have come home.

Those who are returning will know the IFP. There is only one warning I want to
sound. While we remain the IFP you know in values, principles and character, the
IFP you are joining is not the IFP you may have left. We have become far
stronger and more unified since 2011, when ructions divided our party. We have
had four years to rebuild, and we found that, once disgruntled elements left and
formed their own party, the IFP immediately began to grow stronger.

There is no space in this IFP for gossip and bickering. There is only space for
unity of purpose and hard work. If you are willing to become part of a team that
is focussed on growing and serving, you have come to the right place. The IFP is
home to those who want to make a positive difference, those who have a
contribution to make. We are home to political activists, to young patriots, to
women, to entrepreneurs, to job seekers, to those who work the land and to all
those who seek the best for our country.

I invite you to enter a partnership with the IFP and to become politically
active on behalf of our party. The best thing you can do in the next 10 days is
to mobilise support for an IFP victory in Mtubatuba on the 6th of May. With the
IFP, government programmes won’t disappear when the polling stations close. With
the IFP, good governance will continue through local leaders you can trust;
leaders who are committed to putting you first.

I welcome you to the IFP. Let’s make our mark together.