Remarks by
Mangosuthu Buthelezi, MP
Chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders
(KwaZulu-Natal)
Traditional Prime Minister of the Zulu Nation
President of the Inkatha Freedom Party

I am thrilled to be here in Ngoje and to have this opportunity to address you today. I am especially pleased to be present at the unveiling of a cluster project, which will make an important contribution to the ‘from the ground up development’ of this community. This project is an excellent example of what can be achieved by local government and Traditional leadership working together in partnership.

I have always believed local government is the fastest and most effective vehicle of service delivery to the rural poor. Even as one who has served in the one of the major Ministries of State, I have always maintained that real change and development can only take place from the grassroots up.

Where national government is prone to setting up committees and establishing policy units, local government contemplates and delivers action. It is action that makes a material difference to an isolated, troubled or hungry community, not words. As local government Councillors, you provide the essential lifeline to our people. Your municipalities bring hope to the remotest shack!

Local government operates from the very political base. It is closer to the hopes, needs and aspirations of the people. It is also closer to practical solutions. It is this proximity to the people that makes all the difference to our communities. Throughout my long political career, I could not overstate the importance of local government. Nor would I want to.

This is why the forthcoming local government elections, which could be held any time between September 2005 and March 2006, are so important to the future of our Province. The vision of whoever emerges the strongest from the Local Government Elections will prevail and decide the political future of this Province.

We also enter these elections with one of the thorniest issues of democratic South Africa still outstanding: the clash of powers between Traditional leaders and local government Councillors. The wall-to-wall system of local government introduced in 2000 did not cater for the powers and functions of Traditional leaders.

The present impasse rises out of the government’s failure to honour the solemn agreement signed by Deputy-President, Mr Jacob Zuma, on the 10th of November, 2000 to amend Chapters 7 and 12 of the Constitution to address the obliteration of the powers and functions of Traditional leaders.

Last Thursday, I was present at Questions to the President in the National Assembly. You may have seen this unusual spectacle on television before. Often when the President speaks, ANC members burst into wild and rapturous applause!

Members of Parliament, including those on the opposition benches, supposedly have an opportunity to ask the President questions on any subject. The President was asked, once again, if the government intended to address the outstanding issue of the powers and functions of Traditional leaders. Mr Mbeki elegantly danced around the issue before dismissing it as a ‘KwaZulu-Natal’ issue. I suppose that is why it is called ‘questions’ and not ‘questions and answers’!

It would be quite funny if the issues at stake were not so serious.

We are presently faced with a situation in which Traditional leadership has been eliminated from the governance of communities at the local level, except when a municipality may choose to give traditional leadership power. As you will be aware, I called a meeting of IFP local government Councillors and AmaKhosi to address this vexed problem.

My most pressing concern has been to avoid conflict between Councillors and Traditional leaders and to ensure that the two work together to bring real and sustainable development to their communities. It can and must be done.

The total allocation for 2003/4 was R10.347m. This allocation was divided into five clusters:

Mzamo cluster R3.2m

Mangosuthu cluster R3.2m

Babanango cluster R1.5m

Makhosini cluster R1.5m

Revitalization of projects R947 000

Mzamo cluster constituted of three projects:

Mzamo Community Garden R1.33m

Mzamo Crèche R1.12m

Mzamo Poultry R0.68m

The construction of these projects started in August 2003. The construction was done by PDI companies. The contract for Mzamo Community Garden was awarded to Wonder Dream Projects, Mzamo Crèche was awarded to Warren Builders and Mzamo Poultry was awarded to Zicabangeleni Construction.

The construction was completed in February 2004. During the construction, 164 people were employed, of the total people employed, 84 were women, 61 were youth and 4 were disabled.

The furniture for the Crèche was bought, including one Fridge, one Stove and Playing equipment for children. For the Community Garden, Garden tools were bought and the plants/seedlings were to come from the Youth Project funded by the Department of Agriculture. The first batch of seedlings was supplied within the contract.

For Poultry, heaters were installed and 500 batches of chicks were provided at an interval of three months, which totalled to 1 500 chicks. Feed was also provided for the chicks over this period.

I commend the example of Mayor Zanele Magwaza, who is present here with us today, for her shining example of how she has worked with Traditional leaders to promote self-help and self-reliance in her community. Mayor Magwaza has transformed Zululand into a model of well-functioning local government, which I urge others to emulate. The kind of leadership provided by Mayor Magwaza is what I am looking for in the selection of candidates to contest the local government elections under the IFP banner.

As we prepare for the 2005 elections, let us hold true to our belief in the principles of self-help and self-reliance. They have been the bedrock of the IFP’s governing philosophy since our foundation thirty years ago. The challenges of today may be different from those of before, but our values remain timeless and right.

What I am not looking for are candidates who place personal and Party interests above those of KwaZulu-Natal. I am not looking for candidates who idolise ideas of someone in Cape Town or Pretoria who tells them what is best for KwaZulu-Natal. We have seen enough coming from those places and going wrong in our Province.

The one party that thrives on ruling from the centre is the ANC. They fervently believe that one size sock fits all the feet in KwaZulu-Natal and South Africa. That is why they are ready to bring us policies that they know have failed in other Provinces. Their candidates are more interested in pleasing their bosses in Pretoria than answering to their constituents in KwaZulu-Natal.

As I stand here in Ngoje today, the lives of our constituents are being blighted by systematic poverty and hunger, crime and lawlessness, and worst of all, by the HIV/AIDS pandemic. In KwaZulu-Natal, the virus has the highest prevalence in South Africa and, indeed, the world. It currently stands at 37.5 percent and the figure is ominously rising.

The pandemic has, in this Province, for many years, almost unattended, ravaged the countryside and, in many places, left a wasteland we didn’t think possible 25 years ago.

To date, the disease has claimed more than one million, mostly rural, lives. The nature of casualties is dumbfounding. Funeral clubs in relentless mourning, uprooted communities without hope, families torn apart and child-headed households are there for everyone to see. Their wounds are open. The statistics predict there are many more to come.

The unpalatable truth is that inequality is wider than it has ever been in our nation’s history. The net of social exclusion is trapping many people in a web of despair and want.

Only the IFP, and you our public faces, offer the hope and solutions to our nation’s problems. The journey starts here and now today. The cluster project unveiled today is an example of what can be achieved if we remain staunch in upholding our convictions. It is an example of the best kind of leadership: local government and traditional leaders working together in the community and for the community.