IFP CHATSWORTH RALLY

ADDRESS BY
MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI, MP
PRESIDENT OF THE INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY

CHATSWORTH : 21ST MARCH, 2004

It gives me great pleasure to be with the people of this region again, with whom I have maintained a longstanding dialogue for so many years. The people of Chatsworth have made a very important contribution to the progress, development and strive for excellence in the Province of KwaZulu Natal. Our Province has indeed become an extraordinary place because of its spirit of entrepreneurship, industriousness and excellence, which finds in Chatsworth a special home. Indeed, the whole of South Africa needs more of the values which have enabled Chatsworth and KwaZulu Natal to flourish. Therefore, it is important that it is from this place that I have the great pleasure of launching the pledge that the IFP makes to eradicate corruption from our political system.

We are beginning a great march here, to make South Africa a better place. Corruption has become widely spread, not only within Government, but also within many sectors of civil society. It is a cancer which is eating away at our society from the inside out. Unfortunately, during the past five years, not enough has been done to fight this great problem which threatens to obfuscate many of the gains we have made with our liberation. In many sectors of society the impression has developed that corruption is acceptable, or it is one of those evils with which South Africans must learn to live. There are people within our country who have abandoned the hope of making South Africa a place of excellence and almost feel that social evils, such as corruption, HIV/AIDS, unemployment, poverty and crime shall forever remain features of our society. I am deeply convinced that we can eradicate these evils if we are sufficiently committed to employing the necessary measures, which can counter them. Unfortunately, in respect of corruption, the perception has developed that there is almost a climate of impunity, which allows people to get away with it. In the past five years there have
been far too many allegations of corruption and scandals, many of which did not appear to have been fully investigated, nor leading to the necessary prosecutions.

Today, the IFP wants to launch a different style in government. Today we wish to make the point that corruption is an extraordinary occurrence, which does not need to be excused or regarded as one of those things, which just may happen to happen within the milieu of politics of better business. We are here to begin a process in which the people of South Africa are encouraged to blow the whistle on corruption. The IFP is committed to a transparent and corruption free government and today we pledge to govern according to the highest ethical and moral standards. Those of you who know my track record in this province, have direct experience of how I governed the erstwhile KwaZulu Government. I was the only leader amongst all those of the erstwhile nominally independent States and self-governing territories, who conducted an administration of government that on the eve of our first democratic elections on April 27, 1994 was capable of closing
its books without any overspending. I have not done anything to enrich myself and I have spent the last fifty years of my life working day-in and day-out without any rest or vacation, to serve the people of this Province, and to serve the people of South Africa. I have done my best to ensure that my political party, the Inkatha Freedom Party, abides by the legacy of this tradition and remains inspired by a culture of service. We need to promote a deeper understanding and appreciation of the fact that political representatives are servants of the people. People are placed in politics to serve people, not to take advantage.

For this reason, today I am pleased on this occasion to unveil the IFP's clean government pledge, which all IFP office holders will be expected to sign. In terms of this pledge, if any IFP office holder is found guilty of
corruption, in whatever form, he or she will be expected to relinquish his or her office with immediate effect. It is not the first time that the IFP has adopted a zero tolerance policy to corruption and we pledge to continue
in the same fashion. We wish for South Africa to become a country of excellence. We have made several pledges to eradicate the great evils, which are bedeviling our future. For each of our pledges, we must ask the
South African people to make an equal pledge to utilise the opportunity offered by the elections on April 14, to bring about a change in our society. The problems of corruption, HIV/AIDS, unemployment, crime and
poverty have not been fully addressed in the past few years. They are undoubtedly the problems which stem out of our own history, social conditions and specific South African context. However, they are not problems which ought to remain with us as a permanent part of South Africa.

To a great extent, the nature and dimension of these problems has been compounded by a number of policy mistakes during the past years. The roots of crime are undoubtedly in the great social inequalities and
levels of poverty of our country. However, crime has now reached a level of being out of control and I know of no South African, who has not been a victim of crime in recent times, or does not live in fear of becoming one.
The roots of crime are in the culture of lawlessness and rebellion, which spring out of the armed struggle. I opposed the armed struggle, because I knew that it could not succeed against apartheid and that it would leave behind a legacy of lawlessness, rebellion and disrespect for human life and property, which would last long after the demise of apartheid. The problems caused by the legacy of the armed struggle have been compounded by the fact that the problem of crime has been denied for many years and, when it was finally accepted by the ANC government, its magnitude and relevance for all South Africans was downplayed.

A few weeks before elections we hear reassuring statistics, which indicate that crime is decreasing. However, I know that the South African people have grown to look at these statistics for what they are and rely more on
our direct experience, which is that of people imprisoned behind bars, high walls and other protective measures. Too many of our honest and earnest people live behind the bars of their own houses, while criminals are roaming free in the street. Ours is not a normal society and can never be a normal society, until our women and children can feel completely free and safe whilst walking in the centre of any town in the evening.

In these elections, the South African people must rely on what they know, not on what they are told. Too often, on the eve of the elections, we see an intense flourishing number of promises. These elections must be a choice between promises and action. I have never made promises I could not fulfill. Throughout my life I have not spoken promises but only delivered actions. We need a new Government, which talks little and acts a lot. We cannot continue dealing with the problem of unemployment through summits, conferences, workshops and talk-shops. There are standard solutions to deal with the problem of unemployment, which have thus far not been implemented. Over and again the IFP has made significant and clear proposals, all of which are spelt out in our manifesto, to put the country to work. We need to appeal to the whole of the country to aspire to the type of industriousness, which has enabled the people of Chatsworth to rise above their social and economic conditions in order to attain new horizons. South Africa will not solve its many social and economic problems, unless we place our economy on an accelerated rate of growth. The same way as the individuals of this region decided that they would grow economically and work hard to achieve this goal, so shall our entire country decide to make the sacrifices and necessary efforts to grow faster.

However, we have not had a government willing to lead the country on the long, hard and uphill road towards prosperity. I know that the South African people are willing to make long-term investments, and even to accept
sacrifices if they see a bright light at the end of the tunnel. We need to ensure a country in which HIV/AIDS, unemployment, crime, poverty and corruption are as much bad memories of the past, as apartheid and racial
discrimination are today. We need to build a country of excellence, because I shall never accept that all the efforts we have made to achieve our liberation were merely to bequeth to our children and our grand-children, a
country of mediocrity.

I know that the people of Chatsworth are not seeking mediocrity, but are looking forward to bestow on the future generation and their children and their grand-children, the dream of an excellent country which, can stand on par with any other developed country of the world. This dream is not too great for a generation to achieve. A generation ago, the dream of dismantling apartheid and conquering freedom and democracy for all, seemed impossible and yet, we pursued it with all of our strength under a leadership capable of inspiring a dream, greater than the circumstances of the time. By the same token, the next Government should be able to lead the entire nation in a long-term struggle, to achieve for all the same levels of social stability and economic prosperity, which was once the prerogative of a few fortunate people under apartheid. I am committed to making South Africa the land of milk and honey for all, but to achieve this goal we must be able to sip some of the vinegar of social discipline, hard work and commitment to long-term goals.

We need to identify today how South Africa will earn a living as a country in the globalised world in twenty years. The world does not owe us a living, and we need to be able to produce products and services for the global markets, in order to support our development. This requires developing a large industrial basis for South Africa, while identifying opportunities for large scale employment, in fields such as agriculture and tourism. We need a reconversion of our agricultural production to begin producing more products, which require more labour and produce more higher value-added produce. I am shocked that in many of our supermarkets, we would buy avocado pears which are imported and collect fruits coming from the Middle East, when these are the very products which South Africa should be producing to sell around the world. The Government should help farmers to convert to these types of products, while promoting their marketing in global markets so as to produce large scale employment in the agricultural sector, while we pursue a long-term plan to give the country an adequate industrial basis.

In order to give an industrial basis to South Africa, we need to identify today the technologies which will produce the products of tomorrow. We need to make massive investments in emerging technologies, and train our people to master them. The future of South Africa is not in lagging behind, but in leap-frogging towards a future of technology. Only through investing in technology will we be able to jump from our vast underdevelopment into future prosperity. The people of Chatsworth have learned this fact a long time ago and have placed so much emphasis on the training and education of their children. As a country, we need to do the same. We must also have the courage of pursuing programmes, such as the full privatisation of our
parastatal, which have long been identified as being necessary, but they have been delayed for the past ten years. 

Privatisation was an essential part of the macroeconomic strategy of Government, but was stopped because of the cause of the veto of the South African Communist Party and the trade unions, especially COSATU. We must free the Government of South Africa from the deadly embrace and the poisonous kiss of the South African Communist Party and COSATU, if we are serious about building a future of prosperity. We must also liberalise the market forces within our country. We all pay far too much every time we make a phone call, or use other forms of telecommunication, which are more expensive in our country than in most other places of the world. We pay far too much every time we fill our cars with petrol because of an obsolete, inefficient and bankrupt system of State insurance, which tries to do that which everywhere else in the world is left to the private sector. We pay far too much in bank charges because of a lack of effective and external competition within our banking system. The examples could be multiplied by the thousands, but they are all known to the South African people and the people of Chatsworth.

The people of Chatsworth know how much prices go down when people are allowed to compete freely. Too many people are trying to get rich quickly, at the expense of all the others. We need to create conditions in which everyone can run and grow a business, so that economic growth can grow for everyone. When the tide rises, all boats are equally lifted. We cannot continue to have a situation where a few people try to take all the dough, strangling the potentials of others to grow their own business. All these are things which can and must be achieved and are relatively simple to implement under a Government, which is committed to it. However, at times I feel that certain people in Government are more inclined to enrich their friends and their friend's friends, than making the country rich. There are different types of corruption, and one of the most subtle and pernicious is that of people who administer power, not in the interests of the majority of South Africans, but in the interest of a few people with a specific agenda. The greatest form of corruption is in fact, when elected political representatives betray their mandate and do as they please, not to serve the South African people, but to serve a small group of clients and associates.

The legislation which the ANC passed to amend and tamper with our Constitution, to enable political representatives to cross the floor, gives us a feeling of the times ahead, unless on April 14, the people of South
Africa decide to steer the course of future events in a different direction. The crossing of the floor legislation was, in fact, the case of moral corruption in which the Constitution was changed, not to achieve the interests of the State or the interests of the South African people, but to serve the desire for power of the ruling class. It is unheard of anywhere in the world, that political representatives would be allowed to change the rule of their mandate, while they were still serving, and that those elected under one system which did not allow them to steal away their seat and their votes to bring them to another political party who, then in the middle of their mandate, were allowed to do so.

Corruption is about using power not to serve people but to benefit others. Whenever a ruling class moves away from the culture of service, and the dedication to the South African people, the field becomes ripe for corruption to grow and breath beyond proportions. April 14 is when things can be changed. If this opportunity fails to change things on April 14, South Africa is bound to have 5 more years of the same. Five more years of the same levels of ineffective action, in respect of HIV/AIDS, crime, poverty, unemployment and corruption will bring our country to its knees, on a path from which it will be bound to remain a country of mediocrity, and
will never be able to gain a way to the main road towards prosperity and excellence. We must turn it around here, or forever live with the curse of having betrayed our struggle for genuine liberation, merely because a few
people felt that it was over on account of them having arrived at a position of power or comfort.

The people of Chatsworth know what the struggle for liberation is all about and they know that the only form of genuine liberation comes, not only with freedom and democracy, but also with job opportunities, prosperity and a society which can provide dignified conditions of life to all its sons and daughters. We must reach a level of development, in which people become dignified in their work and freedom, rather than remaining enslaved by
poverty, unemployment, underdevelopment and ignorance, for lack of education, knowledge and exposure. These have always been the real goals of the struggle for liberation, which I have waged. That is why I was willing to forgo short-term benefits in the struggle, which could have been achieved through violence because I was looking for long-term gains, flowing from a pacified and harmonious society. In this Province, we have achieved harmony.

We are at the dawn of a new era in which the people of this Province have come together, recognising that KwaZulu Natal has a very special contribution to make to the whole of South Africa. We need to be united
under the IFP leadership, not only to save this Province from the negative influence of other parties, which are not committed to our goals, but also to provide the whole of South Africa with a democratic alternative, in the
hope of a better future. The role of KwaZulu Natal is not only for KwaZulu Natal, but indeed for the whole of South Africa. The battle for democracy is now being fought on the grounds of KwaZulu Natal, and with the help of the people of Chatsworth and with the blessing of God Almighty, we shall win it.

Our democracy is in great jeopardy and we can begin saving it here and now. There are 27 days to elections. I urge all of you to become the engines of these elections. I urge all of you to become very active, to ensure that in the next 27 days, all South Africans think about our future as a country and realise how the next elections is indeed a destiny-determining time. In the next 27 days, people should think politics, eat politics, breathe politics, talk politics and even sleep politics, because if we fail to do so, just by default, we may all end up with a situation which may take generations to remedy. Let us take no chances with the future of South Africa. Let us ensure that our democracy works and is not in danger.

No political party should have the power to amend the Constitution at will and even at whim the way the ANC did with the crossing of the floor legislation. No political party should have more than a 50% majority if our democracy is to work at its best. I forged a strong partnership with the Democratic Alliance, because we feel that together we may provide South Africa with the democratic alternative it so desperately needs. We have
done our part. It is now necessary for the people of South Africa to stand up and rally beyond the cause of democracy, to ensure that it may be saved from its many present threats. It is now for the people of South Africa to save democracy and place our country on a path towards excellence.

It is for each of you to ensure that in the next 27 days, South Africans realise the urgency of the time, and do their best to turn the tide around on April 14. Elections are not only won by a leader speaking from a podium of a rally. Each of you is a messenger of goodwill and carries the flag of hope of a new beginning in your families, communities and workplaces. I urge you to go back to your families, communities and workplaces and carry this message, making it your own message so as to ensure that April 14 becomes the time in which we will forever remember that the South African people spoke and said enough is enough, and placed the country on a course in which it finally solved the crises of HIV/AIDS, unemployment, poverty, crime and corruption and saved its ailing democracy, liberating it from its many threats. On April 14, we may begin moving towards excellence, or we may end up sinking in the warm waters of the pond of mediocrity.

I am willing to do my part to drive the country towards excellence. It is up to the South African people to choose whether they wish to walk the long, hard and uphill road towards excellence with me. I have walked it all my life and I shall continue to do so, because I feel that I owe it to my children and my grand-children. With the help of God, I will continue my mission.

I pray God Almighty to inspire the people of South Africa with the wisdom necessary to provide leadership to the country on April 14. 

May God Almighty bless all of you.

May God bless South Africa.