Thank you for joining us as we launch the Sizonqoba campaign of the IFP. Looking at this branded bus, I feel the excitement rising. It has been a tough few months and many of us have spent long days away from home. We have visited communities across South Africa preparing the electorate for August 3rd.

Our mission to bring a message of hope to all South Africans has met with success. We’ve been warmly welcomed wherever we went. Now we have just one week left to campaign. Our message this week is simple. Get out and vote. Vote for the party you can trust. Vote IFP.

We have given the electorate many good reasons to throw their weight behind the IFP. This campaign has highlighted the long-standing partnership we have had with communities across South Africa. It has reminded people of our track record of good governance and integrity, and restored hope that there is still a leadership that people can trust.

Our final week is therefore devoted to celebration, because we believe that victory is coming. The time is ripe to change the course of local governance. People are ready to restore the IFP’s leadership of integrity.

Our leaders will therefore board this bus today, and travel from place to place in KwaZulu Natal, encouraging everyone to vote. From here, the bus will leave for Port Shepstone, Umzinto and Scottburgh. We will speak to these communities about the good reasons to vote for the IFP.

Tomorrow, the campaign moves on to Greytown, Msinga and Stanger, while I address the communities around Mkhunya and KwaLembe on the importance of securing the right leadership at local level.

I continue on to Umgungundlovu on Wednesday, while the Sizonqoba bus stops at Empangeni, Mtubatuba, Jozini and Hluhluwe.

On Thursday, our bus goes to Pongola, Dumbe, Vryheid and Newcastle. I will be visiting Hlabisa, which is one of the municipalities in which the electorate restored the IFP to power through by-elections. I will be handing over a house to the Cebekhulu family, before opening a new traffic station and visiting the community in town.

On Friday our bus will go Umtshezi, Ladysmith, Dundee and Nquthu. That morning, I get to do what I love most, as I open a school in Ugu District. Education is a priority I have always championed. Some 6000 classrooms have been built under my leadership. It will be a privilege to open another school for the benefit of our children.

On Saturday, the IFP will gather in Nkandla, another of the municipalities where the electorate has restored us to the helm through by-elections. Clearly voters were not willing to wait five years to bring back a leadership they trust. Having tested the waters of other parties, communities are calling for the IFP to return. Empty promises and grand rhetoric might get people’s attention in the short-term. But in the long-term, good governance and service delivery speak louder.

At our rally in Nkandla on Saturday, we will thank the community and let them know that the IFP will keep doing what we do best.

Our closing rally on Sunday will be held at Ulundi in the Zululand District. Months of campaigning will culminate in a mass celebration as we prepare to receive the people’s mandate on August 3rd.

I want to personally invite every member of the media to join us on the Sizonqoba campaign. Thank you for following the IFP’s work over the past few months. Thank you for sharing our journey as support for the IFP grows again.

We are now in the final stretch. This week, it’s all hands on deck to ensure that every voter hears the message of the IFP. In the midst of the storm, there is a party you can trust. Trust us. Vote IFP!