I welcome the opportunity of this press conference. In the past year there have been few occasions on which the representatives of the media and I have had the opportunity to exchange views on the important issues of the country. I have always regarded occasions such as this as a precious opportunity not only to express my own views on such important issues, but also to hear from your questions what are the main concerns of the media. I really hope that during this press conference we shall have the opportunity to focus on the real issues which affect our people and which should permeate and direct the electoral debate.

Often the media prefers to dwell on matters of relatively less importance, merely because they lend themselves to sensationalism. I hope that during this conference we can shy away from matters which are not real issues but have become news only because they have been made into opportunities for sensationalism. I also hope that we will have the maturity to shy away from matters which are nothing but highfalutin media speculations with no factual basis whatsoever. Often the media comes up with the most preposterous theories and we all get dragged into having to deny them, thereby creating a self propelling string of fictitious news.

Let me therefore try to spend a few words on matters which are not issues of importance for the country. I will do so because I know that the media is focussed on them and in the hope that, having spoken about them, they will not become the object of further questions and answers, so that we may move on to discussing things of greater importance. The first over-emphasised issue relates to the swop between Mr LPHM Mtshali who is now the Premier of KwaZulu Natal and Dr BS Ngubane who is now the Minister of Arts, Culture, Science and Technology. There have been many preposterous press speculations about this matter.

It was said that the swop was motivated by pressures from the US Government, which has been denied by all those concerned and no one could identify one single incident to support this theory. It was said that the swop was justified by some secret agenda or mysterious plan relating to casino licencing, and yet no one could explain the logic of this argument. In fact, Dr Ngubane himself has piloted legislation in KwaZulu Natal to remove the licencing and regulation of casinos from the area of political influence and decision making, as required by national legislation. The new Premier will be bound to complete the work of Dr Ngubane as he envisioned it. I hope that this matter will be put to rest and if there are any non-speculative questions about it they may be directed to Mr Mtshali, as I usually do not deal with KwaZulu Natal matters.

Among the real reasons for the swop of IFP leaders is that the IFP leadership also intended to send a clear message to all those involved in the education system of KwaZulu Natal that from the beginning of this year, schools must become the place where teachers teach and learners learn to the full extent of their commitment. I knew that the press would ascribe this swop of IFP leaders to sinister purposes or a different agenda. However, my colleagues and I decided to take the heat and the usual vilification which we knew would follow so as to send the message that somewhere, somehow, we must introduce a new culture of real accountability.

You might have noticed that during his address to Parliament, President Mandela indicated that if the improvements in our education that he called for do not come about, once he becomes a private citizen, he may call for 'heads to roll'. This is a noble statement, but it is those who are in government and while they are in government who should exercise their responsibility of making heads roll when results are poor. We knew that we should not wait until after elections to bring about these changes in the KwaZulu Natal Government because the schools have already opened and we could not wait for past the mid-year. Now the message is out that this year it cannot be business as usual in the schools of KwaZulu Natal. Governing is also about giving this type of example and sending this kind of messages.

The media has been somehow denigratory of Mr Mtshali. At times the media falls in love with showmanship and confuses government with public relations. We have appointed Mr Mtshali to KwaZulu Natal exactly because he is not a public relations man, or --as I have already said in one of my letters to the newspapers-- he is not one of those receptions-and-cocktail-parties politicians. He is a down-to-earth, hard working statesman and his visible presence will not be felt in public ceremonies as it will undoubtedly be felt behind his desk in his office. This is the style of government that KwaZulu Natal needs and it is the style of government which we should introduce into the whole of South Africa, if we are to transform governance from a public relations exercise into a real commitment to delivery and service of the people.

I am not prepared to spend my time and energy responding to any impeccable undisclosed sources. I do not have time for such games. I have spent this amount of time on this matter because I really do not wish to discuss it any further. In your press kit you will also find a copy of the joint- statement that Dr BS Ngubane and I issued on this matter. However, there is one statement which emerges out of this matter that might be worthwhile examining during our discussions in respect of other matters of much greater import and wider scope. This is the statement that the next government will need to finally govern South Africa to make South Africa finally governable.

Before we look at this statement which relates to the contents of my address to the National Assembly of two days ago, I wish to clear the table of another spurious and minor issue which I indeed do not wish to discuss further. I refer to the resignation of Advocate Kieran O'Malley. In your press kit you will find the statement issued by the Chief Whip on this matter. I shall only add that this is a political non-event. Advocate O'Malley was by all accounts the most junior member of our parliamentary delegation.

He became a member of our Party right before the 1994 elections and he was hired as a researcher for two years after elections. He was in Parliament for two years. Therefore, it is preposterous that some newspapers styled him as a 'senior member' of our parliamentary delegation. It is not true that he any significant role in the shaping of our policies, all of which predated his joining our Party. It is also preposterous that his defection was seen as a symptom of the possibility that many white IFP leaders may move away from their political home. I do not know of any of our white IFP leaders having expressed any discontent. I know that all those who have been with us for long enough have grown to learn that, especially for white people, there is no future or real hope in a type of politics which is relegated and defined by racial lines.

They would not move onto some political ghetto defined by racial lines, when they can be leaders in a party such as the IFP which is truly representative of all South Africans. I can make this statement because I think that in the IFP, more than in other black parties, those political leaders who are not black have the possibility to be real leaders in their own right and represent their constituencies rather than merely riding the wave of borrowed constituencies. The IFP subscribes to a philosophy of pluralism which enables different voices to be expressed to reflect existing diversity in our communities. If anything, I know of many white, coloured and Indian leaders from other walks of politics who are putting pressure on our Party structure to be considered for our lists of candidates.

Therefore, I really hope that we can dispose of this issue and move onto matters of importance which should be the focus our dialogue today. I said earlier that the next government will need to finally govern South Africa to make South Africa finally goity of South Africa must be rebuilt at community level and this effort must be conducted by a leadership which has not only the capacity but also the credibility to bring this message to our communities. Most of our communities are out of control. The rule of law is crumbling, the social fibre is rapidly disintegrating. For almost two decades, the ANC had sent to our communities the message that the country should be made ungovernable and that everything should be out of control until the day of liberation. This message predicated that South Africa would be made governable after liberation, but this did not happen. I tried to warn against this message of making the country 'ungovernable'. I stated that if we made the country 'ungovernable', it will remain 'ungovernable' regardless of who is at the helm.

I knew that this madness would not work, and I resisted the disintegration of the social and moral fibre of my communities which was brought about through the armed struggle. I rejected the armed struggle because I saw through it, and detected that its real objective was to turn upside down the existing and natural leadership of black communities to empower a new leadership through the barrel of the gun. After liberation, the process of social disintegration has not stopped but has expanded into the structure of the state, into our schools, hospitals and other public services. South Africa has a gigantic moral problem which we have not yet acknowledged, faced or even begun to address.

For this reason, during my address in the presidential debate, I stressed the need of reaching national consensus on a long-term action plan. I put forward the three main cornerstones of this long-term action plan. I gave some general ideas about how this plan of action should be developed by the next government. These three cornerstones are first of all a profound restructuring of government to make government work, secondly aggressive measure to make the economy grow and produce more and, thirdly, a comprehensive effort to rebuild the social and moral fibres of our communities while empowering them to provide for their own needs. One of the characteristics of this plan of action is that it will hurt because it calls for drastic measures.

We can no longer do what is easy and the time has come to have the courage to do what is hard. I will not reiterate the themes of my address to Parliament, a copy of which can be found in your press kit. It shall suffice to say that what I have identified are not new themes for me and are the product of a lifetime of reflections.

The future of South Africa is bleak, but we can turn the ship around if we empower the right government in the next elections. The IFP is not asking people to vote for us promising them that we will take their support into the opposition lines. I always refuse to take questions about all these spurious speculations about my position after elections. Where I shall stand after elections and the role of my Party will depend on the will of the people as expressed through the ballot papers. We are contending elections to become the Government of South Africa because I believe that South Africa needs the IFP.

We are not entering elections to be an opposition but to give South Africa the best Government it can have and to this end we wish to make our contribution in any way possible once the people have spoken. We are asking the electorate to vote for us because we want to provide a better government for this country and a better alternative for what could otherwise be a bleak future. I am deeply convinced that, in the long term, South Africa can become a paradise for all our communities if we make the required long-term investments. We can make this a terrific country to live in, raise a family and prosper. But we need to redirect the ship along the right course.

The departure of President Mandela from the political scene may create a further deterioration in the moral fibres of our communities. Irrespective of substance or reality, President Mandela has become a symbol of the unity and hopes of our country which has provided some measure of hope, strength and morality in our communities. His departure from the scene may be construed by some communities or some people, as a licence to engage in disruptive activities and the beginning of an open season for all and for every type of action. We need a strong government to succeed. We need a government capable of inspiring moral leadership at social and community level, economic leadership through the liberalisation of our market forces and courageous leadership in cutting off the dead wood and corruption in government and making the government machinery work. We need a government with a strong IFP presence.

When I make these statements often people agree with me, but at times they shake their head, thinking that it will not be possible. Elections are the magic moment in which anything may become possible for as long as people wish it to be such. I do not believe for a moment in the polls which are circulating which suggest that IFP support is declining. The same polls predicted that we would get a 2% support in the 1994 elections and then we scored in excess of 10% nationwide. If the same ratio of error were to apply, our support would now be in excess of 35%. The IFP is conducting its own poll and from the preliminary result we have received our support is growing across all communities of South Africa. In spite of my reservations about polls, that to me sounds to be nearer reality than the other speculations.

I have been in politics for almost half a century and I am always sceptical of polls when there are simple and tested concrete support. I have been in many parts of the country holding rallies and I have seen people flocking to hear what I have to say to them. People have gathered at my meetings in Soweto- East Gauteng, in Mpumalanga, in the Northern Province and in KwaZulu Natal. The IFP support is undoubtedly growing. Our greatest threat remains political violence. We are once again under the onslaught of political violence. I have mentioned in Parliament the assassination of Mr Senzangakhona Cornelius Nkosi who was the IFP organiser in the province of Mpumalanga, and his wife Hlobisile Christina Nkosi.