Colleagues, brothers and sisters, it is a joyous and, yes, momentous occasion to be here in Johannesburg for this wonderful IFP Conference.

The challenges we face in South Africa in this hour are bigger than any previous generation have had to face.

And the problem is that the answers to the challenges are less immediately obvious. The issues are more complex - more nuanced - maybe than the fight against apartheid: the tidal wave of crime, township and taxi violence, a collapsing health system, cronyism in the awarding of BEE tenders, food scarcity and its escalating cost, poor or non-existent service delivery, xenophobic attacks, HIV and Aids, political instability - are a few which immediately spring to mind. But we, the Inkatha Freedom Party, must to rise to them or risk failing the South African people.

No political party has a right to govern: only a right to aspire to serve.

The ANC may be in office - and how they enjoy being in office. I mean have you seen those motorcades with flashing blue lights that stretch on forever!? My goodness, they are longer than the Blue Train! I guess I would not mind so much if they were half-competent, but the problem is that the ruling party has lost the plot.

I have used the analogy before of the pilot who cannot stop his aircraft plummeting to earth. You've seen it in the movies. He wildly pulls this lever, then another, but the dials are spinning wildly and he cannot stop the plane's freefall. They just don't know what to do. Never mind the "A Team"! We are stuck with the "Z team"!

In the midst of this political freefall, our country seeks other choices, and if we fail to offer them, we will only have ourselves to blame.

The general election, only six months away - it could be sooner if the ANC continues to pull itself apart - will be make-or-break time for multi-party democracy in the new South Africa. The "Freedom to Choose", our glorious party motto, is imperilled!

If the IFP and other opposition parties do not close the gap with the ruling party, we are in danger of moving to what a British politician, Lord Hailsham, once famously described as an "elective dictatorship". The opposition needs muscle to take the ANC on in Parliament and the country. 

At the present time, they are large enough to do what they like. Are the IFP muscles pumped up? Are we lean and mean? Are ready for the fight or are we going to be knocked out in the first round when the election is called? Well, not if Mangosuthu Buthelezi has his way because I have always enjoyed a good fight when the fight is for principles!

I don't need to tell you that we have a real crisis of leadership on our hands. Let us be absolutely clear about this when we campaign ahead of that election around Gauteng and the country. The first task where each one's individual effort will be required will be to consolidate our core support through comprehensive voter registration.

Even before we embark on the official campaign trail, we will have to be able to say that all our loyal supporters - even the ones who have not had the chance to vote IFP before - have been placed on the common voters' roll. This is going to take a lot of time, energy and discipline, but I have no doubt in my mind that - together - we can and will accomplish it.

We must enter the upcoming election campaign with the tactical advantage of having all our ducks in a row, so to speak. Please indicate with a show of hands if you can truly say that you have all your ducks in a row in your wards.

I no longer want to hear about our own 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.

At this point it is essential to bring in the issue of internal party discipline. I appeal to all party structures to observe all provisions of the IFP Constitution. I would like to make it clear that the IFP intends to remove those party leaders who choose to defy the party line, miscommunicate the party message or create 'no go' areas and other hindrances against other party leaders.

We must be honest enough to call a spade a spade and identify accurately the challenges facing this province and country in our deliberations during this conference. But we must also apply the same principles when we appraise our own respective contributions to the work of our party. The aim of this Conference must be to ensure that this great work is shared equally among all of us who call the IFP home.

One particular resolution that should emerge from this Conference will be a genuine test of individual integrity. We have undertaken to monitor the performance of our branches and report on their progress truthfully and at regular intervals. This is in the interest of enhanced member accountability as well as improved party mobilisation on the ground where our drive for full voter registration and our subsequent 2009 election campaign will matter the most.

The ruling party is tired. Yes, let's be fair, they have done some great things over the last fifteen years, but they have run out of steam and ideas. That happens to governments everywhere which have been in power for too long, be they of the 'left', 'centre' or 'right'.

The ANC is increasingly dogged by charges of nepotism, corruption, fraud and maladministration, and continues to be plagued by deep divisions.

Do you think, in the midst of such disintegration and chaos that there is much time for finding solutions to HIV/Aids, poverty, unemployment or crime? How on earth, with the best will in the world, can President Mbeki or Mr Zuma tackle these issues in the appalling circumstances they find themselves in?

Let me give you an example of the confusion The ruling party has just announced that affirmative action is here to stay. Only a few weeks before we were told the policy was under scrutiny with an eye on review by way of a sunset clause. Even before then the ruling party was all out for a meaningful public debate on the subject.

It appears to me that the ANC's policy commitments are made up on the hoof as the party goes along or, more likely, as the ruling party makes its pre-election rounds around various constituencies.

This is not to say that the IFP is fundamentally opposed to affirmative action. The objective of redressing the inequalities of apartheid by giving previously disadvantaged population groups economic opportunities previously unavailable to them is noble enough. However, it is its implementation (often politicised in the context of the civil service) rather than its principle that has given affirmative action a bad name.

The truth is that the smokescreen of affirmative action (and black economic empowerment) essentially covers the lack of training in skilled work or professional upliftment of black people in the work place.

We in the IFP believe that the only way to bridge the gap between rich and poor and create a sense of social justice while preserving economic and social liberties is to abandon social engineering in favour of sorting out the education system and concentrating more on the development of small and medium businesses.

We all know that in the aftermath of the xenophobic attacks the most immediate problem is food security. Our people are quite simply hungry and cold.

South Africans who are hungry believe, wrongly, that foreign residents are taking food and jobs. I know from my service as Minister of Home Affairs and the expert advice that I received that that is nonsense. And we need to say so loudly. Please spread this message in your communities. We must be tough on xenophobia and tough on the causes of xenophobia. The roots of lawlessness lie in a national malaise in which darkness has seeped into the souls of some of our people.

But, and this is a big "BUT", I learnt a long time ago to trust the cool judgement and the commonsense of the South African people. I believe the South African people by disposition are made for goodness and kindness. I believe that in our communities, despite the gloom and doom, the spirit of ubuntu - a person is a person through other persons - prevails more often than not over selfishness and evil.

The resolutions of this Conference will have to be ones we can implement.

I would finally like to thank every one of you for coming to Johannesburg to participate in this Conference.

I thank you.