ISANDLWANA  :  August 15, 2004

Master of ceremonies, Inkosi Mazibuko and other Amakhosi present, the Mayor of Nqutu, Mr Franz Mazibuko, Mr Jacob Luvuno, Miss Anna and Mr David Lane, volunteers from the United Kingdom, including members of the Royal Monmouthshire Engineers, Miss Pat Stubbs, co-owner of Isandlwana Lodge, Indunas and Councillors present, distinguished guests, ladies and gentlemen.

It gives me great pleasure to be with you all at Isandlwana today, the location of one of the most stirring moments in my nation's history. My responsibilities as a Party Leader and Member of Parliament meant that I should have been in Cape Town today. As a servant of the people, however, I am duty bound to visit and work among the people. That is why I am here today.

The plight of the rural poor has always been my abiding passion. I have noted before that poverty in rural areas has, in many ways, become worse in recent years. In real terms, the poorest are poorer than they were a decade ago. My biggest fear for the future of our beloved country, which brims with such hope and opportunity, is that the old merciless politics of race will be overlaid with the equally hard and merciless new politics of class.

Some people have taken exception to this position and I was attacked bitterly in Parliament for articulating this unpalatable truth. Yet I know that the people of Isandlwana, as well as the millions of people in rural areas across the country, and the many people who care about them, know what I said was right. It is, after all, they who experience the plight of poverty, hunger and the biting cold of winter cutting through to the marrow bone each day of their lives. It is not a theoretical debate for them. They experience this reality and drudgery every day of their lives.

Another reason why I wished to be here today is the existence of the Isandlwana Lodge. The magnificent lodge is carved into the iNyoni Rock formation on top of which the Zulu commander stood during the battle of Isandlwana on January 22, 1879.

There are very few people that are prepared to risk their money by investing significant funds in rural areas characterised by a lack of infrastructure. There are even fewer foreign citizens who are prepared to do this.

I realise that by saying what I am about to say that I might be treading on a diplomatic minefield. But I must confess that I have a soft spot for the British people. It could be even be said that I am bit of an Anglophile! After Imperial Britain's worst military defeat on that fateful day, one which changed the course of my nation's history forever, Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli, told a stunned House of Commons: "A very remarkable people, the Zulu." I rather suspect, even in a time when the famously rowdy questions to the prime minister on Wednesdays are televised live, that that have been fewer dramatic and defining moments in the British Parliament than this one.

In my long public life, I have had the privilege of travelling to Britain many times and over the years I have made many wonderful British friends. As the traditional prime minister of the Zulu Nation, I have the happy experience of being able to return Mr Disraeli's complement. I have found the British, to purloin his phrase, to be "a very remarkable people". And today, it is my pleasure to acknowledge some "very remarkable people" from Britain.

I would like to salute our friends, Pat Stubbs and Magalen Bryant for having the courage and the conviction to invest in this magnificent lodge at Isandlwana. We, as South Africans, owe you a debt of gratitude. The people of Isandlwana are even more in your debt for bringing development and jobs to this impoverished area. Jobs and development apart, it is this facility that has acted as a catalyst to inspire other people of vision and commitment to help improve the lives of the people of Isandlwana. We equally admire what Mr David Rattray is doing at the Fugitives Drift Lodge and also for Anglo-Zulu history.

The Blanford Upon Avon Rotary Club from the United Kingdom visited Isandlwana Lodge three years ago and wanted to do something for the youth of the community. Rob Gerrard of the Isandlwana Lodge, a British historian who has brought alive the enchanting history of the Anglo-Zulu Wars for countless people, liaised with the Club for a few years about the possibile ways in which they could assist the community.

The idea came to fruition when Mr Lane's daughter, Anna, was at Swansea University in Wales, when she saw the astro turf being removed from the soccer field. She asked if the turf could be donated to the village of Isandlwana. Her proposal was accepted and she put all her considerable organisational skills to work and began fund raising efforts.

Ms Lane auctioned off jerseys donated by two major rugby players in the United Kingdom and arranged other events to raise additional funds to pay for the transport and other expenses to get the astro turf to Isandlwana, as well as the purchase of gravel needed to level the field. There were 9 to 20 foot containers with a total of 120 rolls of astroturf. Each container weighed 1.25 tons which came through the Port of Durban and were hauled to Isandlwana by container trucks.

The Royal Monmouth Engineers recruited some of their soldiers to remove the turf from Swansea University and to see that it was stored properly. Because of their regimental connection to the Anglo Zulu War, they were pleased to play a part in the donation. The regiment sent four soldiers from the UK to Isandlwana to assist in preparing the field and to lay the astro turf.

Ms Lane's team of nine people, including a BBC journalist and photographer started arriving in the village on the 3rd of August and will be here until the 17th of August. The journalist has a comprehensive overview of the village, its people and the area in general and will prepare a documentary that will not only feature the village of Isandlwana, but some of the surrounding historical and interesting sights that will appeal to international visitors to South Africa.

The donation of the Astro turn Sports Field is a significant contribution to this community, whose young people and sports enthusiasts will benefit for a long time to come. A new astroturf pitch today would cost somewhere between 5 and 6 million Rand.

Rarely, if ever, has one seen a project of this magnitude carried off by a young 24 year old. Ms Lane's vision and tenacity have borne fruit, as demonstrated by the miraculous job she has done in getting the donation of astro turf, storing it, shipping it and arranging for a team of people to come to Isandlwana to see the project to completion.

The village of Isandlwana is most grateful to Ms Lane and the team who made the gift possible, and who donated their time and energy, to see the dream fulfilled.

I am told that the gym to which Miss Anna Lane goes to in the United Kingdom has a big banner featuring a quotation from our former President, Mr Nelson Mandela. This, together with her visit to the Isandlwana lodge and the local village, is what inspired her to perform her Herculean task of bringing this astro turf soccer field from across the seas in Wales to this community.

In again saluting her and her helpers, and saying a heartfelt thank you, I should like to read the quotation by President Nelson Mandela to you: