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Dear friends and fellow South Africans,

On Saturday night, primetime news brought us images of protesters
wielding knobkerries, sticks and shields and calling for change in the
IFP. And the newscaster glibly repeated the lie that the IFP is taking
disciplinary action against its National Chairperson.

The perception is growing that we are taking desperate measures, but
our motives are becoming lost is a morass of political analysis and
commentary. We have been accused of trying to cling to leadership
positions, trying to diminish our National Chairperson's chances of
being nominated, trying to make Conference non-elective and trying to
silence democratic debate.

I have even been accused of being a violent man intent on intimidating
my opponents.

There is probably little I can say to convince the analysts they are
wrong. But perhaps they will listen to the words of someone else. Mr
Bheki Cele, the National Commissioner of the South African Police
Service, conveyed the following message to me through an MEC; if we
held our Conference now, there would be a bloodbath.

This province bears the memory of a low intensity black-on-black civil
war. We feel the threat of tensions more keenly and are more aware of
the potential for violence in any situation. We are also more vigilant
about diffusing tensions and averting possible bloodshed. That is our
legacy. Some may understand; others won't.

But there is no way that the IFP, in good conscience, could have held
its Annual General Conference this weekend as the reports of violence,
intimidation and murder kept coming in. We have a responsibility
towards our members to keep them safe wherever they gather. This
responsibility carries more weight than a few adverse opinions about
our decision to postpone Conference.

What the media has not reported on in the follow up to Saturday's
coverage of the protest by the "Friends of VZ" is that someone has
been fatally shot in KwaMashu for refusing to participate. Our
constituency secretary in uMtshezi, who was fired for not supporting
the "Friends of VZ", has been shot in the back. This was the second
time he has been shot at. I recently mentioned that Mr Michael
Makathini had been killed, community members were baying for blood,
people wanted to burn down houses, leaders were being pistol whipped
and threats were flying.

Police reports have warned us of an assassination plot against one of
our senior leaders in the run up to conference, and intelligence
reports refer to guns and ammunition being moved from Durban to
Ulundi. Officers have been sent to warn me, based on their assessment,
that my life is in danger. I am not scared of dying. I have been an
object of assassination threats for several decades, first from some
elements of the apartheid regime and from my own black people during
the low intensity civil war in the eighties and nineties.

But I value other people's lives and we had to weigh up our
responsibility in the circumstances. How could any organization hold a
conference in these circumstances? What kind of organization would
ignore all this volatility, violence and warning and call its
supporters to gather regardless, when their lives would clearly be in
danger?

I cannot help but wonder how any political analyst or commentator who
remembers the internecine war of the eighties could overlook the
obvious and attribute all manner of ulterior motives to our
postponement of conference. Are these so-called experts really
analysts, or are they political enemies? I cannot think who else would
put spin on the attempt to save lives.

Deliberate misinterpretation of our actions has been used by the
"Friends of VZ" as well as the ANC Youth League, whose provincial
secretary, Bheki Mtolo, launched a vicious attack on me this week.
This has been followed by the pontificating of Mr Zet Luzipho, the
provincial secretary of Cosatu in KwaZulu Natal, over why we postponed
Conference.

I really take strong exception to this. The tripartite alliance of the
ANC, SACP and Cosatu has had many instances of disagreement, but we
never thought it appropriate to poke our noses into their business.
Again and again they are convincing us that they are behind the
ructions we are experiencing. It is clear there is more to the IFP's
problem than meets the eye and the fact that a third hand is involved
has become obvious.

Defamation and slander are regular weapons in the arsenal of our
opponents, and these are further embellished by some in the media and
some of the so-called political analysts. I sympathise with the
general public who are bombarded with all these conflicting signals.
In the end, they cannot know what is what.

But at some point, the facts speak for themselves.

We cannot be expected to ignore violence. Our decision to postpone
conference until the situation can be stabilized is based on
responsible leadership.

With the amount of opposition we face, it is a public relations'
nightmare to explain what we do and why we do it. But we choose this
nightmare over the other; because never again will we allow KwaZulu
Natal or our country to be plunged into violence for the sake of
politics.

That is part of our commitment to the people we serve.

Violence related to the activities of the "Friends of VZ" has erupted
both in Gauteng and KwaZulu Natal. That is the same pattern it took
during the low intensity civil war that cost us more than 20,000 black
lives. Our determination is "Never, never again!" To those who
pooh-pooh these facts, let them read Dr Anthea Jeffrey's book,
"People's War".