Last year, we opened our successful Annual General Conference by making an important statement which is now worth repeating. We have been tested by history and not only survived but also came through in a manner which has proven our success and viability. This year, we can complement this statement with the realisation that the IFP is the last man standing in respect of genuine leadership, integrity and morality.  We thank God that in spite of all the trials we have gone through, we have not been found wanting.  This always reminds me of St Paul’s message.  He states in his letter to the Corinthians, II CORINTHIANS CHAPTER 4 VERSES 7 - 1O: 

  ⁷BUT WE HAVE THIS TREASURE IN EARTHEN VESSELS, THAT THE EXCELLENCY OF THE POWER MAY BE OF GOD, AND NOT OF US.
 ⁸WE ARE TROUBLED ON EVERY SIDE, YET NOT DISTRESSED; WE ARE PERPLEXED,
  BUT NOT IN DESPAIR,
  ⁹PERSECUTED, BUT NOT FORSAKEN; CAST DOWN, BUT NOT DESTROYED;
¹⁰ALWAYS BEARING ABOUT IN THE BODY THE DYING OF THE LORD JESUS, THAT LIFE  ALSO OF JESUS MIGHT BE MADE MANIFEST IN OUR BODY. 

The theme I have chosen for this Conference is: “EACH ONE’S ROLE IN A CRISIS AND THE FORTHCOMING ELECTION”. 

I can already hear voices that will say: What ‘crisis?’ We have our freedom and we have a democratic government.  We have had three democratic general elections? Where is the crisis?  Only the politically blind or who have a problem of a political myopia cannot see that our Country is in a crisis from whichever direction one looks at it.  And this is not to minimise what has been achieved in the last 13 years. 

I have always conceded that in the 10 years that I was in government and the three when I was out of government, quite a number of good things have been accomplished. But the fact that all these things have been achieved should not blind us that although so much has been achieved that we are nowhere near arriving at the Holy Grail. 

Let us look at the present day political landscape. The ruling Party has lost its vision, its initiative and its political soul. Its leaders are vacuously reiterating their firm intention to provide South Africa with a better life for all, but they are not doing enough that is capable of achieving this result. There are no political initiatives, no reform, no real programmes and no real strategy to deal with South Africa’s real and growing problems.  While we achieved the things that I have mentioned were achieved, our problems have also been growing at a faster rate. 

If the ANC wishes to bring about progress and social justice in South Africa, it will be forced to begin looking at and implementing the policies and strategies which the IFP has proposed time and again. We are the reservoir of moral leadership, political vision, integrity and courage of South African politics.  We believe that our Agenda is the only one that can save this Country from catastrophe. 

Three years ago, South Africans went to the polls and many of them voted to either oppose the ANC or to push the ANC in a better political direction.  However, most of their votes were wasted, because after elections their political representatives abandoned and betrayed their mandate and jumped into the ANC’s arms.  Entire parties elected to be independent of the ANC and even oppose it, ended up becoming part of it or just a mere satellite revolving around the ANC’s dimming sun. 

Many people voted for the ANC, hoping that the ANC could deliver on its promises.  These are the same people who, by the thousands, are now taking to the streets to protest against the ANC.  It is saddening to think that many of them are today vociferously protesting against the government they voted for but will be voting for the ANC again in less than two years. Yet, if they expect the ANC government to bring about any of the improvements for which they are now protesting, they will need to wait for the IFP policies to be adopted or implemented, whether by us or by the ANC.  

In KwaZulu Natal many people voted to put the ANC in government. They fell prey to the ANC’s propaganda that the IFP was not managing KwaZulu Natal at its best. Three years later we have been fully vindicated.  Everything the IFP was trying to do while we had the premiership of KwaZulu Natal was constantly and systematically undermined by the ANC.  The IFP Provincial government was opposed at every turn.  There was no joint responsibility.  Each Party pulled in a different direction. 

We should never forget that it was IFP Premier Lionel Mtshali who, under my instruction, took the initiative of distributing Nevirapine in all health facilities to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV-AIDS, and that he went to the Constitutional Court to give the same right to everyone in South Africa.  We should never forget that it was the ANC Minister of Health Dr Zweli Mkhize who tried to stop Dr Mtshali to the point of challenging his authority in this respect before the Constitutional Court, where he was defeated.  And yet this was supposed to be a coalition government. 

It was the ANC that before the 2004 election sabotaged the employment generation and poverty alleviation programmes envisaged by Dr Mtshali.  It was the ANC that once in 2004 took power in KwaZulu Natal, brought all such programmes to a grinding halt. Dr Mtshali had announced the intention to develop a much needed green revolution in KwaZulu Natal to convert our agriculture from low-added value, land intensive and non-labour intensive crops such as sugar cane, into high-added value, labour intensive and non-land intensive produce such as nuts, spice and specialised fruits, all of which are now imported into South Africa while we could export them worldwide. This would have brought about empowerment of a new class of farmers. Dr Mtshali’s green revolution has been abandoned, together with the many other programmes that the IFP developed or was about to implement when the ANC took over KwaZulu Natal.  Immediately after taking over the reins we heard of all kinds of scandals such as the Nguni cattle debacle, which did not leave even the Premier’s family unscathed.   

I wish to equally pay tribute to Dr Bonginkosi Buthelezi for his exposé of some of the shenanigans in the Health Department. 

The ANC in KwaZulu Natal sought to fall within the mould of the ANC at the national level. They made sure that this province would not do anything differently to what is done nationally. The end result is that, while noting what happens at the national level, nothing is now happening for the people of KwaZulu Natal through the action of their own province. As far as ordinary people are concerned, the province of KwaZulu Natal has become a useless structure of government. The provincial legislature could easily be abolished, and the province could become a mere administrative subdivision of the national government, headed by an administrator appointed by Pretoria, and no ordinary person would be able to tell the difference.  In fact when efforts were made to draft a Provincial Constitution and when those efforts aborted the Premier openly said he did not care two Hoots in Hell as it was not the ANC that was keen on a provincial Constitution but the IFP. 

However, under ANC rule, the province of KwaZulu Natal has been very efficient and effective in enriching and benefiting ANC politicians, their political clients and their friends. Corruption has never been as rampant in this province as it has been since the ANC took over. It is a feeding frenzy, with no end or measure. Even tender procedures are being bypassed or made a purely perfunctory exercise, often after a decision has already been made on who should get the contract. The KwaZulu Natal government is spending more and more money to deliver less and less services to the people of this province. This is bound to continue and increase, unless at the next elections the IFP brings back integrity and morality by regaining political control of this province. With the resources of State which are being used extensively already to campaign for the 2009 elections by the ANC in the Province, this may be considered to be a tall order.  And yet there is no other solution to the gross misuse of State funds that is going on just now under the present ANC Provincial government.  And just to prevent anyone thinking that I am just politicking when I state these bare facts of the matter let me invite you to look with me at the Editorial comment of ‘The Daily News’ of Monday September 24, 2007.  Under the heading: ‘THE ARCH SOD-TURNER’ the editorial comment reads as follows: 

 When we were the majority party, we sought to share power with the ANC, to our own detriment, because we embraced the poisonous snake in our own bosom and let the enemy undermine us from within. However, the ANC’s decision to kick the IFP out of provincial government has created new rules of engagement. We can now rightly and confidently campaign and canvass the support of the people of KwaZulu Natal to bring the IFP to government in this province, knowing that this time around we will not allow the ANC to undermine us, and we will not offer government positions to the ANC unless we are forced by circumstances to do so. I had cordial discussions with the Premier in Ulundi on the 22^nd of September 2006.  And I had the privilege of feting the Premier in my home KWAPHINDANGENE that day.  And yet less than a month later the Premier removed two IFP MECs from his Cabinet.  No warning or discussion with us.  Not even by the so-called ANC/IFP Committee of 3 which is supposed to resolve problems between us.  This is consolidation of reconciliation ANC-style!   

On this issue of wasting of State resources, I would like to mention the ANC’s plan to build a state of the art complex of Legislature buildings in Pietermaritzburg.  The Ulundi state of the art buildings were abandoned on the pretext that it was a waste of money to use Ulundi and Pietermaritzburg.  The ANC assisted by the DA opted for Pietermaritzburg abandoning agreements we had reached.  They have the Legislature building they chose in Pietermaritzburg.  How can in the face of such vast needs of our people in this Province, we can now agree to the expenditure of Hundreds of millions of Rands for the new building complex in Pietermaritzburg?  Can this take precedence to addressing such grinding poverty that exists in our areas; be it rural areas or in the townships and squatter camps?  Where are the people who were justifying the rationale that Ulundi be abandoned to save money?  Where is their sense of frugality now that money is about to be wasted on such buildings when the Legislature has two Legislature buildings in Ulundi and Pietermaritzburg? 

We will never engage in the type of purges of the civil service which the ANC has relentlessly pursued since it came into power in KwaZulu Natal and which are an outrageous violation of our Constitution. Hundreds of civil servants have been forced to resign by means of attrition or they have been bluntly told that they can have no hope of promotion or job satisfaction on account of their having previously worked closely with IFP Ministers or having declared their allegiance to the IFP.  Many of them are not even card-carrying members of the IFP, but are just considered to be contaminated because they worked under my erstwhile KwaZulu government or under the IFP’s Premiers since 1994.  I even wrote a letter to the national Minister of Public Service and Administration Ms Fraser-Moleketi.  She did not even have the courtesy of sending an acknowledgement of receipt in spite of my having been her Colleague in Cabinet for 10 years!  As a father I tried to intercede on behalf of my daughter who was being victimised for just being my daughter.  I raised the matter with the Deputy President of the ANC the Honourable Mr Zuma in the presence of the MEC in charge of the Department under which my daughter worked.  Mr Zuma appealed to the MEC to look at the matter, to no avail.  I raised the matter with the Premier when we had a discussion with him in Ulundi on the 22^nd of September 2006.  He gave instructions to the Director-General Professor Mchunu to sort out the matter with the MEC.  The Director-General conveyed the instructions of the Premier to the MEC concerned and she defied the Premier’s orders.  And that was the end of the matter.  My daughter eventually resigned. 

The ANC in KwaZulu Natal has failed. Its corruption, self-interest and mal-governance must now be widely exposed. We must begin a campaign of information throughout the province to make people aware of the ongoing disaster which the ANC has brought into the governance of this province. Dr Mtshali, acting as the Leader of the Opposition in KwaZulu Natal, has performed a sterling job in exposing the ANC’s malfeasance in office. However, we need more people following his example, not only in the provincial legislature, but at all levels of our provincial society. We must start now the electoral campaign to regain control of KwaZulu Natal as the springboard towards the important role history demands of us to play after the next elections, even in other parts of the Country. 

This Conference must place our Party on immediate election readiness. The election campaign must begin today.  To save the taxpayers’ money from all those shenanigans, we must regain control of KwaZulu Natal to enable the IFP to show how governance should be conducted, and through it inspire the whole of South Africa at a time of its greatest leadership crisis.  We need to regain a province to inspire a country, in a crisis.  

We must make an unqualified commitment to winning back the province of KwaZulu Natal in 2009. Too many people working in our party seem to be concerned about their own positions. Other people are concerned about leadership issues, and wonder who will be succeeding me, when this Conference tells me that it is time for me to retire or when my term expires or when I get run over by the proverbial bus.   This has taken a lot of energy that should be used by us to regain the ground that we have lost in the past elections. 

It is high time that people stop being concerned about themselves and their positions and get themselves in gear to enable our Party to take back KwaZulu Natal, and to increase or support in other Provinces.  I no longer want to hear about our leaders promoting themselves with our existing constituencies or undermining other leaders. It is time for everyone to focus exclusively on promoting our Party and its necessary role and to do so both in respect of existing, and future constituencies. Get out there and prove your leadership by what you do for our Party. Stop asking what this Party can do for you and begin giving the best of what you can to ensure that our Party can take back KwaZulu Natal and inspire the whole of our country.  It has been a punch line of certain journalists that no one can leave the ruling Party to join the IFP.  And yet it happens all the time and it has been demonstrated recently by Councillors who have crossed over to the IFP during the so-called Window-of-opportunity last month.  We have clear consciences because unlike what some political parties do, we did not offer any money to those who crossed to us.  We can tell many amazing stories of some of our IFP Councillors who were told to go to ITHALA BANK as arrangements had been made for them to collect funds.  We can tell stories of people who were offered millions of Rand worth of projects if they crossed to the ANC, during the so-called Window-of-opportunity. 

And the worst of this has been the arrest of 5 IFP Councillors in UGU who are accused of having conspired to kill Councillor Mpisi, who was the IFP Mayor at Ezinqoleni, who defected with the FP seat to the ANC.  Prior to his defection he was offered security to encourage him to sign the form that would spell his defection.  It is not just only the arrest of our Councillors which we are concerned about.  We are concerned with the way they were taken away in the old- apartheid-era-style to places they did not know.  They were assaulted by white and Indian men in balaclavas.  The whole thing was reminiscent of the tragic murder of Steve Biko whom we were remembering this very month, by the State in 1977.  We seem to have returned to the old style apartheid-era-style where the resources of the State are being mobilised against Opposition parties for political ends. 

By taking over KwaZulu Natal, the ANC has placed the last nail in the coffin of provincial autonomy. South Africa is now a provincial country only in name, but not in fact.  Our provinces are but puppets which slow dance to the sound of the dull music composed by uninspired and blindfolded politicians in the ANC’s national backrooms. We must turn this around by creating a nationwide shoot of inspired leadership from a revitalised province of KwaZulu Natal which under IFP control can finally exercise the full measure of its rights and prerogatives under the Constitution to benefit its citizens. Nothing is more painful, pathetic and despicable than politicians who are given the power to help others but relinquish it to toe the line of their political masters and to benefit themselves.   This is happening on a large scale. 

The political regression, involution and degeneration we have witnessed in KwaZulu Natal are not unique. Throughout the country and at the national level the political situation has become a source of grave concern.  We live in an age of political regression. No significant legislation has been adopted in the past few years. There is no vision for new reforms. There is no programme to improve on government or society. There is no inspiration about ways and means to build a better future. The ANC keeps reiterating the statement that it wants to give the country and its people a better future, but it has no way, suggestions or ideas to get it done. We have a lame duck government, seized with a lame duck ruling party in what is becoming a lame duck country unable to deal with its problems.  We are in a crisis.  Someone has to provide some ways out of this political maze. 

There is almost a sense that everything which had to be done has already been accomplished and we only need to wait for the results of the legislation and reforms already adopted.  Nothing could be further from the truth. The reforms and legislation we have put in place will not address or solve our problems, unless the IFP’s proposals, vision and intended reforms are accepted and implemented.  We are in a real crisis. 

There is also a sense that our country’s problems are so great, entrenched and grave that in the short and medium term there is nothing we can do about it.  I refuse to accept or yield to this type of pessimism. This type of man’s problems is man-made and can be solved by man.  No problem in our society is greater than our society’s own capacity to solve it. What is missing is the political will, intellect and sheer backbone, guts and other manly appurtenances to get it done.  

I could give you a thousand examples of how easy it is to get things done if one has the required political will.  

There is no justice in South Africa, but only the illusion of justice. We do not have sufficient courtrooms, judges, prosecutors and judicial staff.  Both in respect of criminal and civil matters, justice is achieved after very lengthy and costly processes in which justice delayed is often justice denied.  An ordinary citizen cannot access justice because of the cost of lawyers in South Africa, which are amongst the highest in the world.  All this can be fixed almost overnight and at no cost to the State if one changes the rules of procedure of our trials.  We could adopt what is used in North America so that the bulk of trial activities are moved outside our courtrooms and into law offices, thereby instantaneously multiplying by a factor of one hundred the availability of courtrooms and judges.  This reform must be accompanied by the abolition of the obsolete practice of a split bar which forces an ordinary citizen to have to hire at least two lawyers, in the form an attorney and an advocate, while often paying for the price of three. I proposed this reform to Parliament several times, but I know that it will not come about, because our government is too afraid to cross swords with the legal profession which has a vested interest in keeping things the way they are.   

Nothing has highlighted my point about the mess in our criminal justice system than the present state of affairs concerning all that is being said about the national Commissioner of Police Services and the suspension of the Director of National Prosecuting Authority, Advocate Pikoli.  I never prejudge situations.  I am not even suggesting that there is anyone who has done any wrong.  But the fact that these things have happened underscores the crisis in which our Country now finds itself. 

I could replicate these examples many times. Even in respect of matters where the ANC has acknowledged that the IFP is right, the ANC ended up paralysed by its incapacity to confront vested interests.  

For instance, for ten years we have been telling the ANC that the rigidity of the labour market would destroy productivity and employment in South Africa. The ANC realised that we were right and committed itself to introducing flexibility in the labour market, but never took any serious steps towards implementing its utterances for fear of taking the trade unions head on. We all know that the Tripartite allies of the ANC, the Congress of the South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and The South African Communist Party threatened to roll mass action if anything was done to amend labour laws to get rid of this rigidity.  That was the end of that effort.  I was still in the Cabinet when this happened.  How can we expect foreign investors to be attracted to our Country as a destination for investments in these circumstances?  We are in a crisis.  They could not escape the problems I predicted, and dealt with them in a surreptitious manner. They allowed inflation to become rampant so that every year people would be paid less and doctored the inflation figures. We all know that inflation is not at single digit figure. We all go shopping and we see the price of food and other necessities going up, and up and up. Our country does not live on necessities alone and the price of other goods which are not necessities is increasing even more sharply and dramatically. The real inflation in our country is way into a double digit figure. In this respect the trade unions were correct to complain as harshly as they did that pay increases do not keep up with the real rate of inflation. However, neither the ANC not the trade unions has had the courage to go to the root cause of this problem, which lies in the ANC’s failure to listen to the IFP and implement its suggestions.  The IFP can only implement its plans to get the Country out if a crisis if we work hard every day in the week.  And that is everyone of us. Leaders have no magic wands to achieve political support. 

For years I have pointed out how our country does not have an industrial base which can support its prosperity in the years to come. We live in a fool’s paradise which is bound to be short-lived. We think that we are prosperous because of our own endeavours and achievements. Truth be told, South Africa is benefiting from what is the greatest age of human growth and prosperity in history. With the exception of Western Europe, the world is booming. China is booming. India is booming. North America is doing very well. South America is growing quickly. Far East Asia is catching up by leaps and bounds. Japan is back on line. South Korea is going strong.  Eastern Europe is producing daily miracles comparable to what Western Europe did after World War II. In this climate of world growth, South Africa is doing well. But when the season of fat cows gives way to the winter of a meagre harvest, South Africa will need to confront the harsh bottom line that we have no industrial or agricultural bases to produce sufficient goods and services to be sold on the world market to ensure our survival in the age of globalisation. When that happens, South Africans will surely look back at the missed opportunities of the ANC Government and the lone IFP voice pointing out the right way to salvation, which was ignored because we were blinded by ephemeral prosperity. 

However, I am not in the business of gaining kudos for our Party in the history books. I do not wish a bleak future for our country so that historians can remark at our graves or monuments on how right we all were. We want to see our ideas triumph in our lifetime, not for our sake, but for that of South Africa. 

If we use the benchmark of our Annual General Conference of 2002, we can see how the IFP has led the debate in identifying issues and proposing solutions. At the time we identified the crucial issues of poverty, unemployment, crime, HIV-AIDS and corruption as being the most important priorities to be dealt with at the political level.  Within a matter of months, those five issues became the platform for all political parties and the 2004 elections were centred around them. Five years and many promises later, these issues are now as bad as ever and will remain a growing problem unless the boat is turned around.  

When I spoke in Parliament about how crime is affecting the lives of the poorest of the poor and has turned our townships, squatter camps and informal settlements into a daily gamble for survival, those who interrupted my words with applause and congratulated me wholeheartedly afterwards were sitting in the ANC’s ranks. The ANC’s constituency knows how bad the crime problem is, and they know that all that has been done until now consists mainly of political statements, resolutions and words, words and more words.  Even the President did admit for the first time in his State of the Nation Address that the crime levels were now too high.  We are in crisis. 

Insufficient support has been given to our police force. The most basic actions have not been taken, such as diverting funding from the military budget to deal with the real onslaught on our population and its real enemy, so that more money could be made available to better pay policemen, hire more of them and provide them with better training and more resources. The State has abandoned our policemen, who are out there trying to do their work in isolation, frustration and fear.  The President did announce large sums that have been put aside for policing in the current financial year.  It is however not enough.  The killing of Policemen has also worsened the crisis. 

Also in this respect the IFP merely had the courage to point to the obvious stating what had to be done.  Yet the ANC did not have the guts, vision and determination to make a few enemies within the ever-growing criminal community to deal with the problem and fulfil its promises.  In so doing, the ANC has launched throughout all communities the message of a lame-duck government.  

I do not even need to begin pontificating about the issues of HIV-AIDS, unemployment, poverty and corruption, which the IFP’s constituency knows only too well and needs no education about.  Even in this respect there are standard and obvious solutions which we have proposed. Perhaps, those who are tasked with the final responsibility of solving these problems have lived or have grown too far removed from them to have a real appreciation of their importance and urgency. For those of us who like myself live day in and day out in rural and poor communities, these problems are not the strange substance which fills the academic, policy and government papers serving before Cabinet, in the endless conferences and summits paid for by government, and in the rhetoric of political speeches.  To us who are living in the midst of the poorest of the poor, poverty is getting worse every day, in spite of the government interventions through the Welfare Department.  We need to look at the old saying that if you give someone fish you give him or her food just for that day, but if you teach him or her how to fish then you give him or her food for all time.  I have been an advocate of self-help and self-reliance throughout my long political career.  And I despaired even when I was in Cabinet when I saw how few of our people still bother about addressing the problem of food security through self-help projects.  Our whole focus on producing food to feed ourselves has been completely destroyed.  We welcome the emergence of the emergent black farmers.  But we have a food crisis in our rural areas and we need mass funding to revive subsistence farming. 

These problems have now been compounded by new ones which are growing as dramatically as they did. Our education system is in an enormous crisis. Our country is not producing what it needs to survive in the modern world.  We do no have enough engineers and technically specialised people. This factor, combined with our shrinking economic bases spells out disaster. The quality of education is deteriorating.  It is hard for me to say it, but if I compare the education I received when I was a teenager with what I see being imparted to my own grandchildren, I feel a sense of despair. Not only is our technical education deficient, but we are creating a generation which will have insufficient understanding of literature, world history and other aspects of the humanities which are so essential to an all-around formation, over and above mere education and instruction. 

Our government is gradually becoming a graveyard in which State departments will end up as mere tombstones. The Department of Justice is a tombstone which marks the grave of our system of justice. Our Department of Education is a tombstone which marks the grave of real education. Our Department of Labour marks the grave of employment generation, which never took off in spite of many summits. The Department of Public Service and Administration marks the grave of efficiency and dedication in the public service. The Department of Health has unfortunately become responsible for so many graves that its indictment stands tall before history, especially in respect of its handling of the HIV-AIDS pandemic.

Is it surprising when there is just no respect for those in authority even for our Head of State from some members of his own political party?  In my response to the State of the Nation address in Parliament I appealed that we should go back to basics and inculcate a respect agenda amongst our youth.  Recently the former Premier of Gauteng Tokyo Sexwale echoed what I have warned against for so many decades.  He pointed out that the strategy which the ruling party used during the liberation struggle was now beginning to haunt them.  As I have reminded my colleagues in the ruling Party of how I tried to warn them against trying to make the Country “ungovernable” and how dangerous it was to make the townships “ungovernable”.  I warned that if we did that, the Country and the townships would be ungovernable even when we governed the Country.  Is it surprising that in our Schools children are not only attacking their teachers but they are also murdering each other with impunity.  We have a crisis in our Country. 

We need to bring vitality into this dying government. We need a better government for better government action.  At present, the governance machine does not work and does not produce enough to meet our country’s demands, as I predicted would happen. The quality of our government has been undermined from the top down. Productivity has decreased dramatically at the top layer of government which has become more and more involved in the business of politics, conferences, trips abroad, workshops and social events to have the time to provide the required stewardship of effective service delivery. The message percolated through the ranks and we are witnessing a government which is becoming more and more lethargic while present demands and challenges would require it to become more and more dynamic.  We are also sucked into these junkets of going abroad, where our Parliamentarians are constantly travelling to foreign countries on Parliamentary work.  As we as a Party are already so thin on the ground this puts us as a Party at great disadvantage.  This happens at both the national level and the Provincial level.  The ruling Party can afford to send their Representatives abroad since they have a two-thirds majority in Parliament. 

However, only the IFP can come to the rescue.  We need to rescue the Republic, even if that means rescuing the ANC from itself. I bear no animosity towards the ANC, in spite of what they have done to me personally and to the IFP. I appreciate the fact that the ANC seems to be now finally undertaking a process of internal conscience and soul searching which may lead it to appreciate my role and the role of the IFP in the liberation struggle. This has not been done as openly as it should.  As long as my role in our liberation struggle and that of the IFP is not fully acknowledged and told openly, not for my sake or for our sake, but for the sake of the dignity of South African history, there can never be any lasting reconciliation in the South African body politic.  It is not about me. It is not about us. It is about South Africa.  It is about truth.  And it is about their own integrity.  The lecture that Professor Herbert Vilakazi delivered on the 26^th of April this year in Durban was appreciated by some even in the ANC.  Even then it was a pity that many leaders of the ANC that were invited to listen to that lecture did not pitch up.   

For this reason when we talk about inspiring a country and providing moral leadership, we wish to save the ANC from itself, rather than condemning it to its flaws and to the corner into which it has painted itself.  With this spirit and for this reason I tabled in Parliament the 18^th Constitution Amendment Bill, which has the purpose of amending the Constitution to split the offices of head of state and head of government.  

At present, the President of the Republic is both the head of state and the head of government. This is unusual in democracies. The most common form of democracy is one in which there is a head of state, in the form of a president or a monarch, and a head of government in the form of a prime minister. Having a president and a prime minister enables a healthy interaction which protects and enriches democracy. The prime minister governs and conducts the day-to-day activities of government while the president supervises the proper functioning of the Republic, ruling without governing. The president attends to the many ceremonial and international functions which consume most of the time of a head of state, thereby leaving sufficient time and focus for the prime minister to deal with the real issues which affect the daily lives of ordinary people. I introduced this Bill not to favour, rescue or hinder any specific person, but to rescue, protect and empower our Republic to ensure that it will not suffer the injury of the present leadership crisis, and any other which may occur, at any future time.  I did not suggest it to score any points for the IFP.  It is not a party political issue. 

Also on such a occasion we acted in the interests of the State and with the good of the Republic at heart. Throughout its history and at this very time, the IFP has maintained its role of integrity. We may indeed be the only political party which in these uncertain times has remained true to itself and has the courage to speak truth to power. It has not been easy. We may very well be the proverbial lady who tried to remain chaste in a political brothel characterised by crossing of the floor, political infighting, merging of political parties within the ANC sphere, betrayal of the electoral mandate and parties which have slowly become irrelevant and meaningless. The IFP has maintained its political ground and is now more relevant than ever.  We do not care how much this may cost us.  We do not believe in promoting ourselves as a party through Populism.  We have tried to focus on what is in the interest of South Africa. 

We have remained true to ourselves because we have remained true to and in touch with our people.  I have never forgotten who I am, how I was born and what I was born for.  By the same token the IFP has never forgotten why it came into existence and what it stands for. We have kept our dignity and our role of statesmanship in a political environment which is no longer dignified. The IFP must maintain this feature, irrespective of whether I am its leader, for this is the role that history has now cast it into.  We might not be the largest party, but we must remain the one with the most integrity and the wisest. 

We cannot go with the winds and waves of fashion and political correctness. We must speak truth to power even when truth is uncomfortable and will make us unpopular. It was for this reason that while we as IFP fully support the 2010 Soccer World Cup, I at the same time warned that we should not mislead our people to believe that it would solve any of our problems.  All other countries which have hosted such tournaments have not made money out of it, but have rather lost money. We are throwing a great party to the world at our own expense, building huge stadiums with a capacity which exceeds our own needs, rather than spending the same money to build houses and even small soccer fields and basketball courts where ordinary youth can play and pursue their sporting ambitions.  In ancient Rome the oppressed masses were pacified with the policy of panem et circensesque, which means bread and circus, which was that of giving people bread and circus-based entertainment to keep them quiet and obedient. We are all getting excited about this 2010 soccer world cup, but there is no bread in sight and we know that when the excitement is over we will have to foot the bill and find ourselves poorer than before.  But I nevertheless appeal to our members to get involved as much as possible in all efforts that are being made to make our Country ready to host the 2010 World Soccer.  There is no going back now as far as this is concerned.  There will certainly be benefits for some of our people apart from the prestige of hosting this World event.  But I think if we do not warn our people now, about not entertaining too big expectations we may start quarrelling amongst ourselves after the whole World Soccer Competition is over. 

Our first Republic, born out of our liberation struggle, is in crisis.  Its crisis is so deep that it may require for a new, better and cleaner Republic to be re-established.   

There is a deep crisis in our fight against crime which has gone beyond crime itself.  It has undermined the very foundation of the rule of law and the matrix of a democracy based on it.  It would be sufficient for a crisis to engulf our Republic if the top law enforcer and policeman in the country were implicated in a major crime and would not resign. In our case, in addition to it, we have a warrant for his arrest that the police does not enforce, and the President interferes with the course of justice and its independency, to the point of openly suspending the Director of national prosecutions who failed to abide by directives which the President had no authority to give. To top it all two branches of our security forces, the SAPS and the Scorpions, came down to armed confrontation over accessing and securing the evidence of this investigation. 

In this saga our Constitution has been trampled upon by those entrusted with its care and preservation.  Our laws have been broken and ignored by those charged with the task of enforcing them.  It is a disgrace which deeply insults and offends the tens of thousands of underpaid and under-resourced police men and women who everyday risk their lives to protect ours.  It is the crisis of a leadership which when confronted with its tasks and duties plainly failed them, exposing its ineptitude and pettiness. 

The message sent out to the criminals is clear.  Do what you wish for as long as you stay on the good side of those who wage and hold power.  This is not our message.  There is a health, law-abiding part of South Africa, to which we belong, which is sick and tired of the intrigues of powers and the high crimes of State.  We must speak truth to power and clearly state that leaders of this ilk have failed us and failed our Republic. 

We must take our Republic back and loudly voice our protest against corrupt and inept power before it is too late.  If we wait, protesting in the future South Africa may become as difficult and perilous as it was in the old one. The firing of rubber bullets against protesters and the arrest of the DA leader and Mayor of Cape Town are scenes taken from the worst moments of the old South Africa. 

I hope to liaise with all leaders and people of goodwill to find out whether it is possible to organize a peaceful national march to expose the crisis of leadership in respect of crime.  If those who are corrupt hold the corridors of power, the healthy, clean and law-abiding part of South Africa must regain the streets of our nation.  And if they want to fire rubber bullets against Mangosuthu Buthelezi as well and arrest me, let it be so.  Let us really see what they are made of. 

It seems that Corruption has become the way of power.  Some of those entrusted by law with protecting the assets of the State are openly scheming strategies to transfer them into their own pockets.  State own companies which ought to be profitable are driven into the ground so that their recently appointed managers can buy them with money they borrow from the State.  One cannot fathom how SAA which has a virtual monopoly in our country and vast in segments of our continent, charges more than other airlines and is always full to capacity could become bankrupt and require billion of taxpayers Rand, all this after the CEO of TRANSNET announced its imminent privatization three years ago.   

There is a feeding frenzy which the top down is sending the message to everyone to get as much as possible, as soon as possible and no matter how.  Morality, probity and legality are collapsing. The fish is rotting from its head.  We are in a crisis. 

The IFP wants to be and remain an honest player in South African politics. Whoever wins the next presidential elections will need to rely on the IFP for true political inspiration, truthful advice and lessons in leadership.  In our first Republic unfortunately, and I say this with no sense of satisfaction, some of those who have run to feed at the ANC trough have developed too much of a swine nature, to conceive grand ideas and develop and inspire the vision for the future which our country so desperately needs. The ANC which I know as I grew up in it has lost its ideological thrust and at this juncture it has no ideas or vision to offer South Africa, or leaders capable of expressing them. In this context the IFP has become our country’s repository and custodian of hope, leadership and ideas.  The President has many times expressed his concern about the obsession with the pursuit of wealth at all costs.  Nor should we regard ourselves as immune from also falling into this obsession with the pursuit of wealth. 

We need to prepare ourselves to live up to and perform this role. We need to clean up our party to improve the quality and performance capacity of its middle level leadership.  If we are to speak truth to power we must also learn to speak truth to ourselves.  We need a better quality of middle level representation in the provincial and national legislature, and in the Municipal Councils.  I do not want to speak about myself.  It is not necessary.  I must however stress that our Party has some grand and great leaders that you yourselves elected.  Leaders of the stature of Dr Lionel Mtshali, Revd Musa Zondi, Ms Zanele Magwaza-Msibi, Mr Blessed Gwala, Inkosi Nyanga Ngubane, Mr Velaphi Ndlovu, Mr Stanley Dladla, Mr Peter Smith, Mr Albert Mncwango, Ms Pat Lebenya-Ntanzi, Mrs Abbie Mchunu, Advocate Johnson Mathenjwa, Mr John Klopper, Mr Narend Singh, Dr Bonginkosi Buthelezi, Inkosi Bonga Mdletshe, Inkosi Russel Cebekhulu, Ms Madlopha-Mthethwa, Ms Sibongile Nkomo, Ms Connie Zikalala, just to name a few.  I must stop because the list is too long.  I am merely quoting examples; there are too many other competent leaders whose names are not deliberately left out.  I just have to stop here in the interest of time and space.  All I am saying is that I have no fears that when my time to step down comes that you have a very wide choice. 

However let me warn and say that it would be dishonest and deceptive for me not to point out that the rot of Corruption is not confined to the ruling Party.   This rot is occurring even amongst us and within our own leadership.  The Corruption and the pursuit of wealth is our biggest problem in leadership.  There are people who have been given the opportunity to be the face of the Party in serving the public.  It is our members of Parliament, our Mayors and Councillors on whose performance we will be judged as a Party as far as service delivery is concerned.  It will be on this basis that we will win or lose in the 2009 election. 

If we are to speak truth to ourselves we must recognise that we have some political representatives who have held office for at least 15 years without history, our Party or the man on the street bearing memory of what they have done, said or contributed while in office. Fifteen or even ten years are a long time for a man or woman to prove his or her worth.  We need to close this probation period and begin assessing performance more strictly.  Unless we do this kind of introspection, there is no prospect of us regaining our lost ground. 

Our election campaign begins now. The internal clean-up of our Party must also begin now. I want this Conference to set up a process which will hold all political representatives accountable for how --from now, from today-- they begin performing in the election campaign. We discussed this before, but it was never done. It can no longer be delayed. We must make sure that this process of assessment underpins the electoral lists with which our party will contest the next elections. We must ensure that this process remains as a Damocles’ sword on all our representatives’ heads, prompting them to perform to their best and monitoring their achievements.  There has been too much corruption as far as listing of candidates in all elections is concerned.  We have lost support in some instances because of the listing of pals and girl-friends in certain instances.  And this has cost our Party support in many areas.

 This is the time to become a lean, mean and effective election fighting machine. Those who cannot run with the hares cannot hang around to play with the hound. We have gone through a long process which has tried and tested the IFP. We have come through. We have succeeded. We are still standing in spite of all the punches and darts of adverse fortune. It is now our role and our turn in history to make our voice heard. I urge this Conference to rise to the great heights of this challenge.  

In your Group discussions please concentrate on spelling out what each one of us needs to do, to ensure that the Party gains victory in the elections.  Here, I do not mean only the 2009 elections but in By-elections which have become a permanent feature of our political lives.  We are gathered here to look at ourselves and the roles which each one of us has to play in the interests of the Party and the Country in the present crisis and beyond. 

I know that the IFP has inside its body politic and political soul, strength, inspiration and resources which are often unknown to us.  It is now time to invoke and conjure such resources to show the full measure of our stature. It is the time to awaken the dragon and let its voice be heard. This is your time. This is the time in which the IFP leadership and all those within the IFP who aspire to be called leaders can prove their worth.  To lead means to serve.  Unless we nurture this culture of service, there will be no difference between us and those who are getting drunk with power. 

We are humbled by this role, but not frightened.  

We bow before the will of God, knowing that with His protection and inspiration we will be able to perform what our country demands of us. We dare not expect God to be with us, but humbly pray that we may be and remain on the side of God and through our awareness of performing His will and standing by that which is right we may gain the reward of seeing our country succeed and the IFP benefit.  

May God inspire the IFP in its actions. May God watch over this Conference. May God bless and protect you all.