Ladies and Gentlemen:

We gather in this city of Durban arrayed as a mighty army ready for battle. We are fighting a battle to convince the people of South Africa to make a better choice by voting for the IFP. It is time again to blow the whistle to either change the teams, or to allow some teams that have done well, another opportunity to serve the people in the next 5 years.

I said this morning that I believe the 2006 local government elections will test the quality of our democracy like no other electoral contest before in our eleven year old democracy.

Politics is not unlike a soccer match. I know many of you enjoy watching a good game of soccer. Some of you even play soccer! I know the rules of the game very well. If the team is failing and losing the match, the team captains change the players at half-time. It is time to blow the whistle on the ANC!

Over the last eleven years, we have seen, and often suffered, government by a party that has steadily increased its electoral majority, gained control of many municipalities and all provinces. It has spread its reach into virtually every nook and cranny of South African society.

At the same time, this party has retreated into itself. Its supporters have lost perspective and direction. Its office bearers have been overwhelmed by the trappings of power. Its appointees have degenerated into corruption and cronyism. The ruling party has lost its momentum. Its old spirit of selfless service is vanishing. In short, they are running out of steam. It is time to blow the whistle on the ANC!

These elections provide an opportunity for the people of South Africa to make a fresh start. There is now a real chance of a new beginning. This election gives us the chance to elect a new breed of political leaders who really care about their communities.

When the ANC campaigners knock on your door to tell you how much they care about you and your community, tell them the truth: they don’t. They have not yet proved that they care, and they have not yet fulfilled many of the promises that they made so easily to the voters of South Africa.

The ANC in 1994 gave us the best caring sound bite of all time: “A BETTER LIFE FOR ALL”. It was ingenious and it took them far. But, as you know too well, it did not live up to its billing. A privileged, well-connected few got a better life.

The Black Economic Empowerment policy is something we all supported when it was launched as something that was meant to address the needs of the previously disadvantaged in our Country. It has however unfortunately created a new class, maybe a largely wealthy black oligarch this time, without making it possible for the wealth to trickle down to the majority of our people who are trapped in abject poverty. It is unfortunate that what is a positive development to address the inequities of our society should also result in arrogance, and greed. This has created an impression that there is no real concern about the gut-wrenching poverty of the majority of our people.

We have been watching riots and acts of arson in many Municipalities that are under the control of the ANC in a number of Provinces. We dare not gloat over these unfortunate developments which highlight the great disillusionment of the voters with so many promises that have been made to them since the year 1994 and at every election since then. Just look at some of our colleagues in the national Parliament who have been charged for abusing the vouchers that are available to us as Parliamentarians in what has now been called the Travelgate. Just look at the cases pending in Courts against some of the office bearers in some of the ANC-controlled Municipalities such as the Mayor of Mangaung in Bloemfontein and the Municipal Manager.

These are not things to gloat about but they are things which should make us to ensure that our own representatives, whether in Parliament or in the Municipal Councils are not consumed by the kind of greed that has led so many to fall into the cesspool of so much corruption. No Party is immune from these human failures. The fact that it is not our representatives today does not mean that it may not be our office-bearers tomorrow. The words of Wendell Philips ring in our ears always when he said: “The price of liberty is eternal vigilance”. I think that those of us who are Christians would appreciate the fact that our Lord, when he gave us His prayer ensured that there was the line which reads: “LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION”. As humans we are just as susceptible to these human failures.

Remember also the words of Danny Thomas who said: “All of us are born for a reason, But all of us don’t discover why success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself; its what you do for others”.

The IFP is being portrayed just at this time as if it is guilty of maladministration. The dissolution of the Abaqulusi Municipality was an example of abuse of power at its worst. We are taking the matter to Court.

There are some Councillors that we have been aware for quite sometime that they were lying low in order to come out at this time to create the impression that there was something wrong with the IFP. Or to create the impression that the IFP was haemorrhaging. A big song and dance is being made by the media about their defection. And most of them have been political nonentities in the Party who have never done a thing for the Party. I was amused when a Councillor in the Durban Metro defected. In one Newspaper the Premier was quoted as saying that the ANC has caught big fish. My reaction is if the Premier means that this is big fish in terms of the kilograms this Councillor weighs, and his girth, I say yes, it is big fish indeed. I hope this may not be an example of the political assessment of our Premier. I condemned as I do it now some of the ANC Youth who flung bottles of bottled urine and stones at our Premier. No leader deserves that kind of treatment, let alone the Premier and leader of a Party in this Province. I hope that calling Councillor Johannes Mile, big fish was not an example of the kind of Judgment that our Premier has been endowed with by the Almighty. It is IFP policy, through which we did all that has been done for the people of this Province and of South Africa. It is ridiculous that just about every political pipsqueak should be saying that we have no policy. ACTIONS SPEAK LOUDER THAN WORDS. Our track record speaks for itself. What can they point at as their achievements in concrete terms?

In order to rectify these anomalies, we have to get back to basics. We have to recreate a society based on modesty and honesty, not greed and dishonesty. We have to return to a universal rule of law for everyone to abide by. We have to do away with double standards for the privileged few and the unprivileged many.

When respect for the law disappears and powerful people or groups can break the law with impunity, then the universal rule of law inevitably collapses. When the outward form of the law is maintained, but the respect for the law is gone and people feel only the need to make a pretence of being ruled by the law while ignoring its spirit, then the rule of law becomes purely procedural.

It is up to you to judge where, in all this, we in South Africa stand today. It is up to you to decide where we can and must go from here. Forward or backward?

Unlike the lucky, privileged few, the majority of our people still live in abject poverty, contend with the devastating HIV/AIDS pandemic and struggle to find jobs on the labour market that is not creating new employment opportunities, but shedding them.

Outside these stadium walls, one can see the pitiful conditions in which our people are consigned: crumbling RDP homes, poor sanitation; unsafe roads; spiraling crime; an unchecked HIV/AIDS epidemic; a lack of enough clinics and indifferent service providers. It is time to make a better choice for all by voting for the IFP.

The IFP says to the people of the Durban Metro, this Province and South Africa: NOW IS THE TIME TO STAND AND BE COUNTED. DO NOT BECOME A VICTIM OF THE SYSTEM. DEMOCRACY EMPOWERS YOU WITH THE RIGHT TO CHANGE THE TEAM THAT GOVERNS YOU. I WANT YOU ALL TO TAKE THIS MESSAGE INTO EVERY TOWN AND COMMUNITY AND SHOUT IT OUT FROM THE ROOFTOPS. IT IS TIME TO BLOW THE WHISTLE ON THE ANC!

We are fortunate in that I as your leader do not need to peddle before you empty promises. The people of this Region in particular have known me for several decades. I am not asking you to test me, for I went through that test when I managed to do all that I did for the people of this Province with what was no more than a shoe-string budget. It is the opportunity I seek when I ask you to vote for the IFP in order to continue to serve you through my Party. I was able to demonstrate not only to the people of this Region that I am not corrupt. I demonstrated to the people of South Africa my incorruptibility when in 1994, when all the leaders of self-governing territories, that existed then, and the so-called independent states, were supposed to surrender to the coffers of the new South Africa the money that still remained in their coffers that I was the only one in the whole of South Africa who did so. I have therefore tried in my entire political career to lead by example by avoiding pillaging tax-payers’ money that I controlled either as Chief Minister or as Minister of Home Affairs. Not once have auditors queried how I spent your money, the tax-payers’ money. I do not stand here as someone that you still have to test whether he is able to spend tax-payers’ money frugally for the benefit of the tax-payers. I have been tested through decades through the things which even here in UMLAZI stand as proofs of that legacy. I try to inculcate in IFP Councillors the importance not to embezzle tax-payers’ money. And to avoid corruption in any shape or form. So when I ask our Councillors to uphold these values which are hallmarks of good governance, I am not asking them to practice what I have myself not practiced throughout my public life.

The IFP, in our 2006 Local Government Pledge of Honour, Service and Delivery, promises to bring relief to the most vulnerable sectors of our society: the aged, the young and those worst affected by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. This document constitutes three pledges: A PLEDGE OF HONOUR, A PLEDGE OF SERVICE AND A PLEDGE OF DELIVERY.

Our candidates will be signing this pledge today, pledging to implement the promises they make in the name of the IFP. They pledge not to cross the floor to any other political party during the floor crossing window. They pledge to be free from any act of corruption. They pledge to serve you to the best of their ability, utilising all the resources at their disposal.

The IFP is here to pick up the pieces. We are prepared to govern. We are seeking victory not just in IFP wards and IFP municipalities, but a victory for IFP values. We are raising our hands in pledge to live by those values.

You will notice that we do not make empty promises that everyone knows simply cannot be kept. And a pledge not honoured is as useless as the paper it is written on. That is why we have established a monitoring system to ensure that IFP Councillors abide by their pledge.

On behalf of the Inkatha Freedom Party, I make this promise today. We will act quickly and decisively should any of our Councillors be found guilty of corruption. We will create an early warning system to detect malfunctioning councils. We will dismiss Councillors who do not attend council and community meetings.

We will hold our Councillors to the highest standard. The IFP has also learnt a painful lesson over the last five years. You put the wrong people in and they let their community down and cross the floor. We have learnt and say ‘never again!’

We have seen over the last five years that many of our municipalities cannot run themselves, let alone provide essential services to their communities. No one knows this better that the people themselves. Their mass protests have exposed malpractices of the ANC-led municipalities. The IFP-run municipalities have not seen a single protest march. Doesn’t this say it all? It is time to blow the whistle on the ANC!

The IFP has always believed that we should not expect the government to do things for us. The government is necessary to create the conditions in which we can do things for ourselves. We have always believed in self-help and self-reliance under which individuals can flourish and together form a flourishing society. We want to build a society of opportunity for all.

In order to flourish, our local government must confess that it is being plainly over-ambitious. It must admit that it is being over-confident in its belief in the capacity of social sciences to solve public problems.

It is better for local government to get the basics right first – delivering essential services such as water, electricity, roads, sanitation and the efficient provision of grants – than set for itself grand targets and achieve nothing at all.

Local government is also critical to winning the war against HIV/AIDS. The HIV/AIDS pandemic is the most serious socio-economic crisis South Africans have ever faced.

This disease can only be defeated against a backdrop of hope. The fatalism which has permeated the HIV/AIDS debate in South Africa, beginning at the top and filtering down to all governmental levels, must be overcome first.

We will bring prevention and treatment where the government interacts with people closest: to all clinics, hospitals, care centres, schools, and sports and recreational facilities under local government jurisdiction.

We will direct all local government-sponsored counseling, testing, assistance, legal support and targeted campaigning to make HIV/AIDS a major priority. This approach is short on bureaucracy and big on action.

Our local government must reconcile its generosity in giving people democratic rights with its greed in taking consumer choices away from them. It must implement greater responsiveness to the demands of citizens. It is for this reason that we recognise consumer choice as an inherent democratic right in the context of our local governance.

Investing into service delivery by local government while contending with its insufficient capacity to deliver, is hardly progressive or constructive. Investing into our people as individual clients instead, is. In this election, the IFP is proudly investing into you. This is our pledge.

Our idea of local government means relying on people at the bottom instead of interference from the top. We reject a local government driven to distraction by bureaucracy. We offer a local government driven to delivery by motivation.

How does one achieve a local government like that? The IFP is on offer on South Africa’s political market as a self-help and self-reliance driven alternative to the corporatist and interventionist policies of the ANC. We are out there to appeal to individuals who share our values irrespective of their socio-economic identifiers. We are out there to appeal to you and your communities.

In our oversight role as a moral and constructive alternative, we have proved our worth as one of the pillars of democratic practice. We are now ready to take democracy further. We are now ready to govern. We are now ready to serve you.