LAUNCH OF THE IFP's NEW LOGO
ADDRESS BY
MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI, MP
PRESIDENT OF THE INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
AND MINISTER OF HOME AFFAIRS
Durban City Hall : June 13, 1998
The National Chairman and Premier of KwaZulu Natal, Dr BS Ngubane; the Secretary General of Administration, Mr MZ Khumalo; Ministers; members of the press; distinguished guests; ladies and gentlemen.
We are gathered here to present to the world the new logo of the Inkatha Freedom Party. The people of South Africa have already seen the image of our logo in many newspapers where it was advertised for the benefit of over eight million readers. We have sent the announcement of our new logo to news outlets world-wide, and we have gone to great efforts to make our new logo known. We must ask ourselves why the IFP has chosen to change its logo. The question may be asked as to whether the IFP has changed. The IFP has not changed. Our message has not changed. Our track record of integrity, morality and correct political assessments has not changed.
However, there is something new in the air. A new wind is blowing through South Africa. There is something different
blowing through our communities. The heart of South Africa is beginning to pulsate with a different beat. The heartbeat of South Africa is increasing under the pressure of unfulfilled expectations and grave concerns. The IFP intends to become the voice through which the unfulfilled expectations of the people and our shared severe concerns, may finally be expressed. The announcement of our new logo underscores the fact that the IFP is beating to the tempo of the pulsating heartbeat of South Africa. Our heartbeat is the heartbeat of South Africa and we are now upping the tempo of our challenge to bring South Africa back on to a safe course towards economic prosperity and social stability.
Something has changed in South Africa, something which now may make a difference in our lives and for our future. South Africa is ready for the IFP and the time of the IFP has come. For too long we have not been heard. For too long the people of South Africa have had to endure pain and anguish because we were not heard. For too long the people of South Africa were not allowed to hear us and instead of hearing the IFP for itself, they were bombarded with constant campaigns of vilification against us.
All that they ever heard about the IFP came from the mouths of our detractors. We are still in a position in which we cannot talk directly to the people of South Africa, as we still do not have the financial and logistical resources necessary to bring our message to all of them. However, let it be known to all the people of South Africa that their message has reached me and even though not all of them can hear my voice, I am hearing theirs and I will continue to listen to their echoing demands for tested and courageous leadership which brings integrity and determination into the governance of our country.
The people of South Africa are also beginning to piece together the few and scattered things they have heard about us during the many years of our struggle for truth, liberation and prosperity. We were criticised when we opposed the armed struggle because we remained faithful to the original strategy spelled out by the founding fathers of our liberation movement, which was based on non-violence, passive resistance and moral high ground. People are now realising what the armed struggle has done to our country. It killed and maimed tens of thousands of our people, disintegrated the social fibre of many of our communities and disrupted our education system, leaving in its wake a legacy of lawlessness, disrespect for human rights, rebellion and criminality. Today we are suffering under an unprecedented wave of criminality, lack of integrity and lack of discipline because of what the armed struggle did to the people of our country, whose hearts and minds must now be freed from the lessons of violence which they learnt then.
People who are experiencing the plight of unemployment and seeing our economy becoming worse by the day, are now realising why I exposed myself to world-wide criticism when I refused to join the call for international sanctions and foreign disinvestment. Our economy has been damaged by international isolation penalising the poorest of the poor, while the rich managed to survive in spite of economic isolation. For years we ourselves have foisted economic isolation on South Africa and effectively expelled foreign investors, while now we must beg them to come back to
jump-start our sluggish recovery. I was then the Chief Minister of the KwaZulu Government, a position which I took up at the encouragement of leaders of the liberation movement such as Oliver Tambo, Chief Albert Lutuli and President Nelson Mandela, and I was committed to the upliftment of our people, and to delivery, and could not be so short-sighted as to impoverish my people for liberation, when in the end international sanctions had very little effect on the final demise of apartheid.
People are also realising what the IFP's struggle for federalism was all about. During the period of constitutional negotiations few people understood the connection between the highfalutin constitutional themes of federalism and fundamental bread and butter issues, such as the quality of schools, hospitals, policing, housing and welfare in each of our communities. The lack of delivery in which government is now engulfed, has shown how the system of government is becoming part of the problem rather than part of the solution. Lack of delivery has accentuated the need to cut down the central Government to strengthen the delivery capacity of provinces and local governments. The IFP has always stood for devolution of powers and has warned that the new South Africa could not operate on the basis of the inefficient, centralised and autocratic State apparatus it inherited from the old South Africa.
In the past four years the IFP has continued to fight to increase the autonomy of provinces. We fought to improve on this system of so-called "co-operative governance" which indeed has become system of co-optive governance in which provinces are being transformed into mere administrative implementers of what is centrally decided. The Constitution calls it "co-operative governance" when in fact the system is such that provinces have been co-opted in a unified and centralised process of policy formulation, which is cumbersome, inefficient and ineffective. We now have centralised and uniform policies, legislation and administration for all the things that affect the people, such as schools, hospitals and police.
We were alone when we postulated the need to cut the central Government to its barest minimum and strengthen the structures in charge of delivering services to the people. We were alone when we stressed the necessity to merge powers of administration with powers of policy formulation, so that provinces can apply their minds on how best to serve the needs of their citizens, developing strategies, solutions and programmes which they can actually implement, instead of having to run after academically impeccable central Government white papers which are removed from administrative realities. The technicalities of the federal argument are difficult, but its practicalities are simple as they boil down to the quality of our daily lives, the safety of our communities and the education of our children.
The IFP is willing to look at reality for what it is through the eyes of the people, rather than looking at reality through the tinted rosy lenses of dreams, false promises and unrealistic expectations. I have lived all my life with the poorest of the poor and amongst simple people, and I see South Africa as they see it and as they experience it. I respect people and their intelligence and I have never dared to promise them things that no government can deliver. I now see their difficulty in finding jobs and their plight in a society which is disintegrating at all levels. I see the frustration of people with integrity. I see the spreading of a culture of corruption and abuses which is mixing and mingling with an endemic culture of entitlement, indolence, greed and lack of discipline. I see some of the people of South Africa thinking more about themselves than about their families and their communities. I see our people being pulled apart by the greed and the ambition of the few, rather than coming together in joint efforts.
Our country needs the strength of these joint efforts if we are to succeed. Unless we promote a culture of discipline, integrity, rigorous work ethic and personal dedication to our families, jobs and communities, South Africa will not succeed and the road ahead will have nothing to promise but more unemployment, more poverty, and a decreasing quality of government services. We must pull together all people of goodwill and sound morality to muster a new hope. We need a new hope stemming out of our collective moral fortitude. We must begin a new struggle at all levels of society under a new and inspired leadership who can see the problems ahead and rise above the short-sighted horizons which thus far have often limited many governmental policies and decisions.
For this reason I have called for a revolution of goodwill to bring about the moral re-foundation of South Africa, not from the top down but from the bottom up. From our families, our work-places and our communities, we must promote a culture of discipline, integrity, rigorous work ethic and personal dedication. We must express a political leadership which can set the example and infuse strength into the revolution of goodwill. When the leadership is morally ambivalent, the body of society is morally fragile. When the leadership is short-sighted, the nation is blind. When the top is weak, the land suffers and the people are ailing. For this reason, the IFP is now upping the tempo and challenges the people who seek hope to give hope to the country in a process of national mobilisation. For this reason the IFP elephant is coming to the rescue.
I believe that the image of the elephant portrayed in our new logo is singularly appropriate to the campaign which the people of morality are undertaking to seize the governance of the country and put it into clean and strong hands. The elephant is a symbol of strength and power which evokes the sense of a deeper serenity rooted in wisdom. The elephant is the symbol of clean power utilised for the sake of good and for the benefit of others. We have chosen the elephant as the new symbol of our Party because we hope that its power, courage and determination can finally be brought into the governance of the country so that once and for all the ambivalence, impotence and weakness of governmental policies can be stopped.
Let us make no mistake, the IFP elephant is no ox, but is a fiery yet gentle bull. The IFP elephant has a long memory and a long-term vision. We must bear memory of our past and never forget the many lessons we learnt during our liberation struggle. Apartheid was atrocious to those who were oppressed as well as for large segments of those who benefited from it, but were nevertheless subjected to an autocratic system which restrained the personal and collective freedom of us all. Together we have begun a long journey for freedom which we must yet complete. Let us complete that journey in the same spirit of togetherness and all-inclusiveness which has always inspired the IFP.
Together with the image of the elephant, my Party has launched the slogan of the "United Faces of Inkatha." Also in this slogan there is nothing new. Inkatha Freedom Party itself is the ever-broadening circle which wishes to include, rather than exclude.Inkatha Freedom Party is the symbol of unity of all South Africans of goodwill, because we have always realised that South Africa can only succeed with the support and contribution of all its people of goodwill in an all-inclusive process based on national consensus. Throughout my life I have always sought to bring people together across any existing divide. When we were divided by racial separations, I challenged the colour line and established the Buthelezi Commission and the KwaZulu/Natal Indaba. Today we must challenge existing political, cultural and social divides to come together as South Africans of goodwill, to fight the common enemy of poverty and indolence, and to destroy the greed of the few who are enriching themselves at the expense of the many.
The IFP elephant wishes to represent our unity in diversity. In our logo, our elephant is not in isolation but is portrayed within a family in which all members have equal importance and dignity. The youngster precedes the father under the watchful eye of both the father and mother to signify our commitment to the future of our youth which is our constant concern. We remain rooted in family values and committed to bequeathing to our youth a world which is better than the one we inherited from our forefathers. Our elephant also expresses the IFP resolve to carry no political luggage and ask for no easy ride on anybody else's back. Elephants do not piggy-back on others. I do not need to ride on anybody's back, nor do I need to carry anyone on mine. The IFP has a mission to pursue for the sake of South Africa. I and the IFP belong to the people. We will walk hand in hand and co-operate with anyone wishing to pursue the interests of the people on the basis of a long-term plan, but we will not divert from our mission in order to accommodate, wait for, or follow other Parties.
The IFP elephant is committed to walking straight over the small obstacles which are engulfing the government and the petty political machinations and intrigues which have become the main concern of some political parties in the preparation for elections. The IFP elephant intends to bring people of goodwill to power to make an input into the governance of the country. The elephant represents a power which can be trusted and the fact that the IFP has earned the right to be trusted. Trust cannot be bought on credit but only in hard earned political cash. Trust is not measured by how much money a party has to pour into public relations operations. Trust can be measured by truthfulness and the integrity of leadership.
The government of the future must be based on this trust. I am not asking anyone to join the revolution of goodwill to become an opposition, for the place of goodwill is not in opposition but in government. I am not asking anyone to follow me to the opposition benches. The IFP elephant is today starting a long march to enable the people of goodwill to acquire power and govern the country. We are committed to bringing hope to power. We shall follow up on the launch of our new logo with a crescendo of new political initiatives to bring people together at all levels of society.
Let us join our hands and let us join our hopes. Together we can win and help our country fulfil her promise that one day all our sons and daughters will be able to live in a land blessed by economic prosperity and social stability in which fear, poverty, corruption and criminality shall be but a memory of the past. Let us join hands together to give the country the strong, uncompromising, tested and inspired leadership it needs to fulfil this dream, under the guidance of the Almighty God and with the support of all its people. May God bless our efforts to continue our struggle.May God bless you all, and bless your families.
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