I am delighted to take this platform at the University of Zululand today. This is a special place and to me coming here feels like coming home. Every time I set foot on this campus, I am overwhelmed by a sense of history. 

At a time when today’s ruling party, the African National Congress, preached Liberation before Education to the millions of South African youths and prompted them to plunder educational institutions due to their apartheid credentials, Inkatha had the courage to espouse common sense. We knew that these very youths would be ill-equipped to participate in a democratic dispensation that was imminent without so much as an education. 

Our retort to Liberation before Education was therefore Education for Liberation. We were determined to empower our people so they could seize the opportunities democracy was bound to offer with an open mind and an ability to make informed decisions. The University of Zululand was one important by-product of this far-sighted policy. Its establishment, in turn, was the result of extensive lobbying and fund-raising by His Excellency Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi. 

The ethos of this university was infused at its inception with the spirit of uMntwana’s and Inkatha’s focus on self-help, self-reliance and selfless leadership. During its existence this university produced a whole class of excellent academics, hands-on managers and competent administrators whose collective effort has paved the way for democracy in this province and country long before the first multi-racial elections in 1994. All this is an indication that the University of Zululand is natural Inkatha territory. 

SADESMO has done us proud by promulgating Inkatha’s values in the university’s post-apartheid context through its competent representation in the institution’s SRC. By definition, a Students' Representative Council represents student interests in the government of a university. By convention, each university has a statutory obligation to receive representation from the SRC and consider its demands with utmost seriousness. This gives the SRC considerable leverage in the university’s administrative, management and even academic matters. 

Being in charge of the SRC is therefore a useful weapon to influence the university’s executive decision-making in accordance with the SRC’s underlying values. One, of course, needs to know how to use a vessel like a SRC effectively. Even when one does, there is a lot in the tertiary education under the ANC baton to contend with! During its successive terms in power, the challenges the SRC under the SADESMO leadership has had to tackle at the University of Zululand have been truly immense. 

Only take the institution’s sorry state of financial management which has adversely affected virtually every function of the university. Many of the management-related issues pertaining to student admissions, residences and general administration have not yet been resolved despite SADESMO’s best efforts. For all practical reasons, it is absolutely essential to keep the IFP flame burning around here. Our local representatives have proved, twice in a row in fact, that they can deliver. They deserve to be put in charge again. 

The recent events at the local – Umhlatuze Municipality have shown that attaining a democratic mandate in a free and fair election is not quite enough for a political party in South Africa to remain in power. The immoral floor-crossing legislation, which places the self-interest of the individual above the collective will of the democratic majority, has rudely upset the fragile balance of power in the local council. As a result, the people of the greater Richards Bay area now live under a local government administration they did not choose at the ballot box. 

The bad news, unfortunately, does not end there. The way the ANC chose to interpret urable event was enough to give local democrats shivers. ANC provincial chairperson and KwaZulu Natal Premier, Sibusiso Ndebele, spoke of 80 percent of the province’s economic centres being effectively under the ruling party’s control, following the latest floor-crossing, and, even more worryingly, of no turning back to any other but an ANC government. This was plainly scandalous. 

In my capacity as Leader of the Official Opposition in KwaZulu Natal I made it clear at the time and I make it clear now that it is precisely this sort of hegemonic talk that undermines the new South Africa’s democratic credentials and rings alarm bells among our potential foreign investors who, as I will outline later, are essential for local economic development. Quite frankly, Mr Ndebele’s diction reveals that the ANC has not progressed much beyond the organisation devoted to the vision of a one-party dictatorship it once was. 

The IFP’s experience of co-existing with the ANC shows and Mr Ndebele’s comments confirm that the ruling party simply cannot be taught democracy. Only a political party fuelled by crude self-interest and committed to pursuit of power for its own sake could revel in gaining extra representation through a process as immoral and unfair as floor-crossing. And let me tell you, the floor-crossing balance sheet had not even been confirmed by the Independent Electoral Commission at the time Mr Ndebele made his ill-considered remarks. 

I would also like to remind you that the latest floor-crossing has left the ANC grossly over-represented in the KwaZulu Natal Legislature where I work.

The ruling party won 46 percent of the popular vote in 2004 and now it commands an absolute majority of parliamentary seats. A cynic might ask: how could it be otherwise with all the resources of the state as well as the skewed floor-crossing legislation at the ruling party’s disposal? 

I am aware that the University of Zululand faces a challenge of absorbing increasing numbers of students from outside KwaZulu Natal, mostly from the neighbouring Mpumalanga. I have heard allegations to the effect that this is a deliberate effort on the part of some decision-makers at the university to ensure a steady influx of outsiders who are thought to be sympathetic to the politics of the ruling party and its allies among student organisations.

Whatever the case is, my advice to SADESMO is simple. Your fellow students from Mpumalanga and elsewhere represent a pool of potential supporters to you as they do to the ANCYL. This is a game of political competition. Take them on! 

You will have noticed that the greater Richards Bay area has seen an unprecedented economic upswing during the past decade. Tata Steel’s Ferro Chrome Smelter Project, for all its newsworthiness, is but one example of the region’s vast economic advances. The economic development has brought many jobs onto the local labour market, it has increased the local purchasing power and, in turn, stimulated local businesses. The list of beneficiaries is long indeed. The economic development has also progressed with considerable efforts to prevent damage to the environment. 

For one, the high carbon ferrochrome plant, which I have noted, has been dubbed "the cleanest in the world" owing to its state-of-the-art production processes. The plant, I am glad to say, has truly put the greater Richards Bay area on the world map. Ferrochrome, as some of you who study the sciences will know, is used in the manufacture of stainless steel and the local plant's output will be exported to Tata Steel existing customers, principally in Asia, Europe and the United States. You – who live in the vicinity of the plant – are thus in the focus of major international trade, so to speak.

 All this, I am proud to say, has been largely due to sensible management at both provincial and local government level by the Inkatha Freedom Party and particularly the three successive IFP KwaZulu Natal Premiers between 1994 and 2004 and our former Mayor Denny Moffat. Dr Moffat was the prog force behind the endeavours to turn this region into a hub of fervent economic activity. He has done a splendid job managing and co-ordinating development without getting in the way of the market forces. His removal from the mayoral post as a result of the latest floor-crossing has dealt the greater Richards Bay area a tremendous blow. We have all lost out. 

By outlining the history of this institution and Inkatha’s place in it I have located a legitimate role SADESMO is to play in the affairs of the University of Zululand. By recapitulating SADESMO’s track record in serving the student community at this university, I have established its credentials to serve its fellow students again in the future. By pointing out the political behaviour of the ruling party, I have given you an idea of what to expect in the upcoming electoral battle. And, finally, by painting a picture of success at Umhlatuze Municipality under the IFP administration, I have provided a leadership example for SADESMO to follow. Having said this, I wish SADESMO all the best in the upcoming SRC elections. Break a leg! 

I thank you. 

Contact:
Dr Lionel Mtshali, 083 256 4902