This Conference is called because since last year when the Chairperson of the Province the Reverend K M Zondi was elected as our Secretary-General, there occurred a vacancy because we have a rule against any person holding two important positions simultaneously. Because of the problems of time and other subversive activities within our organisation, there was no time to hold a Conference to fill up the vacancy. The National Executive of the Party then decided that the Deputy Chairperson Professor S J Maphalala should operate as Acting Chairperson. It is now history that it was during the very time he was acting that Professor Maphalala defected with the IFP seat to NADECO. That has made it imperative to have an election of a Chairperson to take the place of Rev Zondi who was last elected by the last Provincial Conference, and also the Deputy and to re-arrange the Executive, if necessary.

This Province is the most important component of the structure of our Party as most of the votes the Party has received at every election have come from this Province. It therefore goes without saying that we need a strong team of leaders at the helm of our IFP Provincial Executive for this reason.

So the election that takes place this morning is very important for our performance not only in this Province as a Party but for us throughout the Country.

It will be important therefore for you to elect someone who will be able to carry the responsibility for the running of our Provincial structure. It should be someone who has leadership qualities and who has been tested by time. At this time most of the mischief that began last year is concentrated in this Province. It still remains a challenge for the Chairperson and his executive to be people who will spare the time to meet not only regularly, but also if and as when necessary even at short notice. We have local government elections in a few months time. The executive should somehow be facing up to so many demanding electoral challenges.

We have had painful lessons in allowing ourselves to be swept by the euphoria when elections of this kind take place where wrong people can be so easily swept into such important positions to the detriment of our Party. It is so easy to make blunders if people are carried by the euphoria in conducting an election. Who would have dreamed that the people that the Party reposited its trust in during our annual Conference would in less than a year and a-half be in a new Party? No one of us could have guessed that this was possible. And there it is, it did happen. It is now for us to learn some lessons from it and to avoid repeating the same mistakes. In a Country where there exists an immoral law such as the Crossing-of-the-floor Legislation, it is very damaging for any Party to have a prominent office-bearer of the Party defecting to another Party with the seat of another Party.

I know that you know all these things but in fact precisely because they are still so fresh in your minds that is why I must hasten to remind you of them, so that you can really apply your minds when you propose names of suitable people who must take such important positions in the Provincial Executive. So therefore it is very important that the office bearers you choose should be people with verve and zest, who as I have already said are hard-working.

The IFP has always operated within the limits of representative democracy. Yet we have never perceived the popular mandate as a limit to what we, as a party, wanted to achieve. The people have always supported us for what we stand for: the timeless values of self-help, self-reliance and selfless leadership.

Those of you who will shortly emerge as leaders of your generation in this province, will have a solid base to support you in terms of philosophy and mandate. We will expect you to represent both without fear and with dignity.

We are now in the crucial run-up to the local government election poll which will be held in March next year. These elections, as I have repeatedly said, will decide the future of our great political enterprise. I do not exaggerate, when I say this.

These polls will determine if we can mount a successful challenge to the ANC-led government in 2009. These elections will further confirm if we can hold our position on the national stage as a major player. Most importantly, our performance will determine the nature and pace of service delivery to the people of this province and beyond. It is on the basis of service delivery that the voters will judge us in the forthcoming elections.

I do not need to spell out your key role as the chief cavalry at this time. We look to you as the springboard back to power. We are a government-in-waiting and you are our front line.

As you know, the IFP parliamentary caucus in this province is the largest opposition caucus in all of the nine provinces. Indeed, the ANC only enjoys a majority in KwaZulu-Natal because of the defections in the recent floor-crossing window. Nadeco, of course, was the main beneficiary of floor-crossers from the IFP, and has bolstered the ANC's power. And let there be no doubt: Nadeco, for all its rhetoric to the contrary, is a splinter party. Depending on the kind of leadership you choose that will be decisive on whether such a splinter party can have any foothold in this province or in the Country at large.

It is very important that you communicate this to people on the ground. Dr Jiyane’s modus operandi has been to sow confusion by giving the impression that Nadeco is ‘IFP lite’; a spin-off from the main body. Nadeco is our political opponent. Because of our narrow margin in some municipalities even the slightest support for Nadeco could scupper our chances of forming an administration after the elections. We must be tough on NADECO. It must be dealt with as our voters dealt with it in Ulundi and Mtubatuba during the By-Elections. You have seen how NADECO has been rewarded by the ANC in this province with high positions in the Legislature. The ANC wins either way, if NADECO does well it suits the ANC for it takes our votes from us. If NADECO does not do so well it still achieves the ANC’s objective of splitting the IFP votes. That is why the former Deputy Chairman was rewarded with a position for cooperating with them in their efforts to destroy us.

The lengths to which the ruling Party is prepared to go even in using the resources of the State, has been so demonstrated this week when the Minister of Local Government decided to take over the administration of Abaqulusi Council. This is without any justification whatsoever. Nor has it been regularly done. His machinations to destabilise our Council in Vryheid was frustrating when we defeated his minions in the Courts of law. He has now decided to resort to those strong arm methods. And yet we as a Party spend our limited resources in such unnecessary litigation, when he has the resources of the State to play these dirty games in an effort to bury the IFP even before the forthcoming local government elections. This should leave none of us under any illusion as to the fierceness of the battle we are already in, with the ANC.

The ANC's new majority in the Provincial legislature, however, has not been tested by the electorate. In terms of the votes cast, the ANC did not win a working majority last year. Our role in KwaZulu-Natal is therefore not only central to the future of our party, but indeed to the prospects for multi-party democracy in South Africa and the wider region.

I would like to repeat my point that the ANC may have won 70 percent of the popular vote in the 2004 general election, but, in real terms, it has confidently exercised 100 percent of the political power since. This means that the emergence of a de facto one party-state is a disconcerting reality we all need to come to terms with. I know that they deny this, but it is a fact and the way they went all out to woo our members to be crosstitutes is the extent to which the ANC sees the IFP as their worst political enemy which must be destroyed. That is why the ANC leadership in the Province participated in full in trying to destroy the IFP by tempting our members with patronage. That was done from the lowest echelons of the ANC leadership to the leader of the Party in the Province himself.

What is currently left of multi-party democracy in South Africa can only be salvaged and from then on grow if we, who constitute the fearless opposition, are united in our purpose. Dr Lionel Mtshali’s candour and forthrightness in the Legislature at its sitting in ESTCOURT should be applauded by all true democrats right across all parties.

No political party can conduct its business and prepare for office if its foot soldiers feel mutinous and disenchanted. Let us put an end to division and I make these points not to criticise, but to build. I say them because I believe in you. Some of our members who are tempted to be lily-livered need to be reminded of Lord Winston Churchill’s famous words on the stupidity of Appeasement. Referring to Mr Joseph Chamberlain’s efforts to appease Hitler, Churchill said: “SOME PEOPLE TRY TO PLEASE THE CROCODILE IN THE HOPE THAT IT WILL EAT THEM LAST!”. Only a moron amongst us should not have understood the strong determination of the ruling Party to eliminate the IFP from the political radar of this Province and South Africa.

On a personal note, I have served in public life for over half-a-century. In many ways, my journey has never been as difficult as it is now. Our nation has entered into a perilous period. The Jacob Zuma saga may yet unravel the gains we have made over the last decade. As a Party we must consider our response to these momentous times in our province and country. We must chart a course that is constructive, not opportunistic. The hand of history lies heavily on our shoulders.

The present ANC-led government has failed our people. They came into office with the good wishes of many, including us, for the sake of this province. Their failure to deliver means that they must go. Only we, the IFP, can provide a better alternative. So in all we do, let us never forget the people are the masters and we are the servants. This conference will reinforce this view when it elects a new selfless leadership for your generation in this Province. Please do not elect people who will only regard your electing them as just part of their curriculum vitae. We are servants of the people and we need people’s servants not those who will see themselves as masters instead of servants of the public. The trouble with many of our leaders is INDOLENCE. People just do not want to work. Don’t elect people of that breed.

I have outlined the heavy responsibility that lie on your shoulders at this time. Please exercise it with prudence and in good faith for if you don’t you will have let us all down. We want people who will pull the party up, and not pull it down. You will remember the programme I announced last year of RENEWAL and REGENERATION of our Party. Please give us people who will run with us, and not people who will see their election as laurels to sit on.

We started with prayers and we hope that the Lord will give you strength and wisdom not to let us down. That will not just be letting down our Party but the whole Country because South Africa can only succeed as a multi-party democracy and not as a One-party state.