The young elephants of the IFP meet at a grave time in our country's history.

The torch of our ruling party leadership, and hence of our nation, is being passed on in just over one week's time. If there ever was a time to speak the truth, the whole truth, frankly and boldly, this is it! 

The ruling party will choose a new leader who is sure to be the President of South Africa from 2009. The majesty of democracy, the right to choose, will prevail, laying bare the hopes and dashed dreams of victor and vanquished alike. Politics, in case you have forgotten, can be the unkindest of human pursuits. British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli described politics in the late nineteenth century as the "greasy pole". How apt. From my own experience, this definition of politics still holds. 

As players in the democratic process, you, the IFP Youth Brigade, are not merely consigned to the role of passive observers. You are an active part of the democratic process in this great country. You will all know that the latest manifestation of the ongoing democratic process is the contest fiercely fought between the President and the Deputy President of the ANC. The outcome will be felt for years, indeed decades, to come. It will affect your future and that of your children. 

As an opposition party, it is not the IFP's role or right to prescribe to ANC branch members how or for whom they should vote. It is our right, however, to enjoin them to choose a leader who is best qualified to pursue the constitutional directives to liberate our people from HIV/AIDS, poverty, joblessness, criminal activities, poor education and preventable diseases. This is the responsibility we all share in South Africa today without regard to our political affiliation. 

This deeply divisive contest, perhaps, says as much of the failure of the formal opposition in parliament to provide a credible alternative to the ANC.

The seismic events in the ruling party might, and I stress might, say as much of the failings of the formal opposition as those of the ruling party.  Where there is no vision the people perish. 

Could it be that grass-root members in the communities, hamlets and towns scattered across our land are voting with feet for 'opposition', but not opposition as we know it? Could it be that this generation is rejecting the rules of a generation of self-seekers? Could it be the cry of a nation asking for action, and action now? If so, we are entering deep and treacherous waters. 

I believe we will find our true destiny if we return to the belief that politics should be for principles, not a lust for power. These dark days will be worth all they cost if they teach us that political service is for the purpose of serving our fellow South Africans. The restoration of ethics, as well as the response to the call for action, is needed. 

I therefore would also like to say this to our President, Mr Thabo Mbeki. I have known the President for over thirty years and served alongside him in Cabinet for ten of those years. The President and I were political opponents, but never, I hope, enemies. We sometimes differed sharply, most notably on the government's strategy to combat HIV/AIDS and immigration policy to attract skills. 

Yet none of this prevents me from acknowledging that South Africa has been led by a talented patriot with a clear grasp of public policy for the last eight years. He possesses a sense of certitude and a shrewd intellect. His fiercest critic cannot deny that this is a man who has given his best at home and given South Africa political clout far exceeding our lower middle ranking status in the international community. I know from experience that he bats for South Africa at every opportunity. 

His crowning achievement is, of course, his meticulous work, alongside the Finance Minister, to integrate South Africa into the global economy. When we participated in the first cabinet meetings in 1994, few of us could have imagined that the years of economic stagnation experienced under apartheid in the 1980s would be so swiftly reversed. I therefore plead that as a people famed for their generosity of spirit that the President, irrespective of the outcome, is treated with the respect his office and legacy after the Polokwane conference.

He will still be the Head of State for nearly two years after Polokwane. 

The next President will inherit a sparkling economy and a nation of stark challenges, poverty still the most persistent. He or she will also inherit a political landscape blighted by sectional divisions and a nation fatigued by scandal and corruption. It will require formidable political talents to heal the latter and preserve the former. It will require steely political will to take on the challenge posed to our people by HIV/AIDS and related opportunistic infections.  Our country seeks discipline and direction under leadership. 

We also need a strong sense of leadership from the President in seemingly trivial everyday matters, not just in the big matters. We especially need direction in protecting our fragile environment. We need to be told authoritatively how important it is to save electricity and to begin car sharing to reduce carbon emissions. I fear that, due to our immediate political exigencies, we have not kept pace with the rest of the world in how to combat global warming. 

We in the IFP are, of course, facing an additional challenge immediately after the ANC Polokwane conference. Our future political course in general and our campaign before the next election in particular will have to be adapted to the realities of ANC leadership after Polokwane. (As we all know, the prospect of an early poll is floating around as a possibility).  As an opposition force, we will have to reformulate our message to the people of KwaZulu Natal and South Africa in such a way as to differentiate our identity from the ANC’s.

We will have to prove afresh that we are a credible alternative.  We have not done so yet.  I hope that we will be doing so next month. 

This conference is the first public forum for the IFP to begin contemplating these issues in earnest. We must not let ourselves be overtaken by circumstances. We must seize the initiative and do so now! I urge you to consider all this when you deliberate on pertinent issues during this conference.

Why is it, I ask, that South Africa spends more than any other developing nation on education, and yet so many of our ten year olds are illiterate?  Why is it that we spend 60 percent of the budget on social grants, but our society is so broken? These are just two of the questions we must grapple with this weekend.  Let us not respond glibly or with endless resolutions that resolve nothing.  I would much rather that we adopted one simple resolution on Sunday which we implemented, than ten eloquent ones which are never are materialized.

Our politics is not to be found in the eloquence of our pronouncements, but in what we actually do.  We must act, and act quickly. 

I urge you to respond to immediate circumstances with judgment and flexibility. I urge you to be on top of things! Commentators do not tire of pointing out the ANC Polokwane conference is an important test of political leadership. So it is – I add – to us in the IFP. 

I thank you.

Contact: Jon Cayzer
084 555 7144