Speech by
Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, MP
PRESIDENT OF THE INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY

I am grateful that members of the Youth Brigade have come to attend this important Conference, in spite of the fact that we had to give you such short-notice than we have done over the years. As you know owing to the fact that our limited resources were so depleted by last year's general election and the fact that we have the local government elections in a matter of months, we could not afford to have our usual annual Conference of the Youth Brigade this year. But circumstances have forced us to have this particular Conference. You all know the efforts that have been made by our opponents to sow divisions amongst our members. As a result of these activities some of the office bearers of the Youth Brigade decided to resign. We therefore found ourselves with no option but to hold this Conference mainly as an elective Conference of the Youth Brigade. We could not afford to go into elections with a truncated leadership of the Youth Brigade. The youth are the vanguard of our Organisation; the very spear-head in all our political battles. We could not afford to go into battle with what is almost a headless platoon in our army.

As you know in terms of the Constitution election for office-bearers of the Party are due only next year. But owing to the situation that I have just described the top leadership of the Party decided that we should hold this Conference even within the dire straits in which we find ourselves.

The youth as I have always emphasized represents the future of our Nation.  I know that our detractors have their own version of why we could not hold our annual Conference in July and why we could not hold both the Youth Brigade Conference and the Women's Brigade Conference.

As long as I am the leader of this Party, I am the person in front of whom "the buck stops," in the famous words of President Truman of the United States. And from the very inception of our Party our Constitution in Chapter V states that the Youth Brigade of the Party shall fall under the auspices of the President. Not even under the difficult circumstances in which the Party found itself since 2004, could I shirk that responsibility which the Constitution places firmly on my shoulders.

I thank you for responding to my request in calling this Conference.

We gather today as a Youth Brigade driven by COURAGE, COMMITMENT AND CONVICTION: the three Cs. It is true that there is only one Party in South Africa that is worthy of this theme. For only the IFP has the courage to fight the good fight. Only the IFP has the commitment to see the battle won.  Only the IFP has the right convictions to put our country right.

We meet at a time when the battle for multi-party democracy is being waged intensely in South Africa. As a Party, we are focused outwards and looking towards a glorious victory in the impending local government elections. Let the battle commence!

As I look around me this morning, I am proud to gaze upon the youth - the sons and daughters - of the Inkatha family. You have inherited an extraordinary legacy of which we all should be justly proud. Over the last thirty years, the IFP has made a unique contribution to the quality of democracy and political debate in South Africa. The youth of this Party have been at the forefront of this great endeavour. You will continue to be so for the next thirty years and beyond.

The IFP has persistently offered solutions to South Africa's crisis of leadership throughout the 1970s, 1980s and 1990s. Once again, the IFP is called upon to provide leadership to a nation which is not receiving the leadership it deserves and needs. In the past, when others blindly resorted to radical language and chose the path of violence, we offered reasoned arguments and workable policies.

You might recall that my stance in the 1980s against sanctions and disinvestment and support of free enterprise earned me the sobriquet of 'Margaret Thatcher's dog', in a muddy reference to the then British Prime Minister Mrs Margaret Thatcher. Anyway, twenty years on, I was in London last week to celebrate Lady Thatcher's 80th birthday. And guess what, the ANC has had to reluctantly come round to our way of thinking. They had to accept our case and the fundamentals of free enterprise in order to build a free and prosperous society for our children and their children. They had to abandon Socialism which was their creed for decades. But most unfortunately for South Africa the election alliance Partners of the ANC The Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) and The South African Communist Party (SACP) have people in their leadership who still cling to Socialism and Stalinism. The fact that the former Soviet Union and the Eastern bloc of countries which were their model, have abandoned this Shibboleth, has made no difference. I have been in government for 10 years.  I know that the government under the Presidency of Mr Mbeki has committed itself to very good macro-economic strategies. Unfortunately because of the presence of Socialists in the Tripartite Partnership, the ANC government cannot implement these good policies. That is why our role as the Party is needed in this Country more than ever before.

So when others preached doom, we have always spoken the language of hope.  Hope is the substance of public life. The IFP has always been at the razor sharp end of new ideas and we must continue to be so in the twenty first century.

I would like to briefly outline my plans to continue to renew and rejuvenate the IFP.  Much of what we have achieved together stands firm today. Together with the people of South Africa we defeated apartheid by peaceful resistance while preparing a firm basis for the democratic state that was to emerge. Together we have withstood the ravages of apartheid divisions to salvage and nurture our diverse identities which, together, we call South Africa. These are remarkable achievements.

But things have not always been easy. Sometimes, we lost a battle or two only to win the war and prove others wrong in the end. That is the nature of politics. If I had my way in the past, there would have been no sanctions and disinvestment at all. If I had my way now, our brothers and sisters infected by HIV and dying of Aids would receive the life-saving antiretroviral medicines. I wish for the sake of service delivery that we had not narrowly lost the election last year in this Province. But that is how it goes sometimes. Parties win and lose some elections. I will refrain from discussing some of the reasons why things happened that way during the 2004 General Election.

Yet whatever the achievements and disappointments of the past are, we dare not stand still for a moment as this hour presents us with fresh challenges.

One of the greatest challenges facing us is the assault on our hard-earned liberal democracy. We have just emerged from the latest round of political musical chairs. The recent floor-crossing window handed Premier Ndebele a working majority which he never received from the electorate last year. And in the National Assembly, we have a colourful array of new opposition parties that have not received one single vote and are being sponsored by you, the taxpayer. And their leaders who stole our votes are now subsidised with taxpayers' money, without having tested their support in any election.  It is an immoral situation which the ANC and the DA foisted on the rest of us by agreeing to amend our Constitution, which we thought was sacrosanct!  The Constitution was amended for what were patently expedient reasons. It is now a tool in the hands of the ruling Party used to destroy the Opposition and to create a multitude of miniscule parties.

One of them, NADECO, is trying to brand itself as 'IFP lite', rather like Windhoek or Coke lite with reduced alcoholic or caffeine content. Well, they certainly lack oomph. Their symbol is a soaring eagle but, I am afraid, they have been born a dead parrot. NADECO's gains in the recent floor-crossing fell rather short of their self-proclaimed President's modest expectations.  And in Mtubatuba last week, we roundly trounced NADECO and increased our share of the vote. The people have spoken both in Ulundi and in Mtubatuba.

Dr Jiyane's supporters have at various times described him as a modest man.  I agree. To quote another former Prime Minister of Great Britain, Winston Churchill speaking of his former deputy, he stated that he has much to be modest about!

My message to our friends and foes alike is that there is only one IFP. And we will prevail! To those of you who may be attracted by the parroting of some of our IFP ideals by NADECO spokespersons -I warn-: "BEWARE OF IMITATIONS!"

And as we meet in 2005, our struggle is far from over. Last year, at our 2004 Annual General Conference, we began a process of renewal. Unity and purpose became our watchwords. This great work continues because we are united in the knowledge that only the IFP offers the leadership and solutions to our country's deepest problems.

This morning was a historical milestone for the Youth Brigade as you chose leaders to lead you for the next five years. For the first time in our Party's history you directly elected the entire leadership Executive of the IFP Youth Brigade. I congratulate you on your choices and wish the new team all the luck in the world. They will enjoy my full support and that of my colleagues. You took your responsibility seriously and choose first-class people who are willing to work hard for you. You will have to work hard with them as you, together, canvass support for the IFP in the upcoming local government elections and in other challenges that we as a Party face! I wish you well.

In a world of political spin which I abhor, you have a solid body of principles to guide you. As we reflect upon the last thirty years, we can be confident that our enduring philosophy of self-help and self-reliance has stood the test of time and experience. People have had enough of empty promises. They want to see a return to conviction politics.

Never before in our nation's history have our values been as relevant as they are today. The IFP are the peoples' champions. The ANC believes in the dead hand of the central state, whilst it is inside the local community where Inkatha's spirit resides.

As we gather as the IFP family, we also feel an added sense of urgency. We are keenly aware that great changes are afoot in our country and government.  As I listen to the people, read the newspapers, and travel around our great country in my duties as Party leader, I feel a growing sense of national unease.

As the leader of a moral and constructive opposition, I will never countenance naked opportunism at our political opponents' expense. But I cannot fail to address the seismic changes that are presently taking place in the body politic. You would have read in the newspapers how Premier Ndebele's authority in cabinet and in the provincial ANC has been weakened because of the deep divisions surrounding the Zuma affair. I know that all of us as politicians regardless of political affiliation have to tolerate all sorts of pejoratives and insults that are flung at us by our political adversaries and some in the media all the time. But I think what the leader of the ANC in this Province has been subjected to from members of the ANC in this Province is the ultimate, as far as insults are concerned. To have bottles full of urine flung at one, is a very crude way of expressing any rejection of a political leader.

For the first time in our eleven year democracy the ANC alliance is openly fracturing. The narrative of the ruling party of today is about personalities rather than policies. It should not be. The ANC is no longer the invincible giant it was in the general elections of 1994, 1999 and last year when it won almost 70 percent of the vote. The ruling party is more concerned about keeping their pie together rather than distributing a much larger pie, that of service delivery, to our people.

The cracks are fast appearing under what has been, until now, a carefully maintained image of unity. The tripartite alliance is crumbling. This in itself is no bad thing for there really are no convictions to glue this dubious alliance together. Yet we are faced with the unedifying spectacle in the international community of supporters of the President and his current and former Deputy contradicting each other. This leaves the traditional ANC voters wondering what their party really stands for. South Africa is a youthful nation. And the youth of South Africa are today looking for a party driven by courage, commitment and conviction.

This is our moment! This is time to retake the province! This is the time to show South Africa what the IFP is made of! The upcoming local government election gives us all the first opportunity to flex our muscles.

As I look around the young people gathered in this venue, I see deep concern in your eyes. I do not see the confidence I would expect to see in South Africa after 11 years of democracy and freedom. The unhappiness and frustration have given way to outbursts of mob violence in the Western Cape, the Free State, Mpumalanga and in this province. I am sorry to say that young people have been involved for understandable reasons.  Anger and despair, suppressed patiently for so long, has finally boiled over.

The ugly scenes from Frankfortall over the Free State, in Utrecht, and elsewhere in KwaZulu-Natal are a measure of dissatisfaction with ANC's failure to deliver services. They are a thumbs-down to the government that pinned its reputation to the contrary. The divisions that have spilled out into the open are an indication that popular dissatisfaction with the ruling party has become a national issue.

But let me make one thing clear: we should not, and must not, derive any satisfaction from what is happening. I believe, if anything, the recent developments within the ruling party offer a recipe for national instability. So it would be a blunder if those of us who belong to other political parties, think that this is a moment for gloating over these cleavages. They are certainly not good, not only for the ANC but they are not good for South Africa.

The ANC house is a house divided. Nowhere is this more obvious than in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. And nothing confirms this more convincingly than Premier Ndebele's protestations to the contrary. We need to understand why the ruling party, our main opponent, is divided and look at the root causes.  Mr Zuma has become an iconic totem of dissatisfaction, within and outside the ANC. He has become the rallying symbol for disaffected left-wingers, some claiming he was relieved of his duties because he was a champion of the Left, while others claim it was because he is a Zulu. All this is debatable!

This division has resulted in a fluid situation which is further complicated by the precarious levels of endemic poverty, mostly in our rural areas and in our urban squatter areas. As you know, the IFP has played an important role, in and outside of government, nudging the ruling party towards a market-driven economy. We feel that the people's potential can best flourish in a free-enterprise environment.

This strategy carries obvious risks in a society fraught with racial and income disparities.  But we have always known there is no other way. We have always had the courage to believe in the free enterprise. We have always been committed to economic liberty. We base these beliefs on conviction. We always do things out of conviction in the IFP, even if they are unpopular, as long as we are convinced that they are the right things to do for our Country and ALL her people.

Although officially in alliance with the ANC, the Left has become an outspoken opponent of government policy. This makes for an explosive mix.  Such naked populism as it contains, I believe, is dangerous for a country that is seeking to overcome the divisions of the past and banish the dragon of poverty.

Yet the reasons for the rioting and the splits in the tripartite alliance are painfully obvious to us all. The slow pace of delivery by the state and in municipalities is too slow with greedy administrators and politicians creaming off scarce resources. You know this better than I do. The wheels of the ANC train are grinding to a halt in the slushy gravy of corruption, nepotism and greed. And there is no reason why a country like South Africa and a province like KwaZulu-Natal should be grinding on the lowest gear. You deserve better and we can do better. People are sick and tired of the sleight of hand politics as represented by the ANC government's glitzy IMBIZOS, and the political jamborees that are financed with taxpayers' money, under the pretext that these blatant electioneering events are staged TO BRING GOVERNMENT TO THE PEOPLE! Not anywhere in the older democracies have such things ever been done. These events are costing millions of rands of taxpayers' money, when our people trapped in such gut-wrenching poverty.  They are an insult to the intelligence of our people as if they can be mesmerized into believing that their plight is improving, if they are fed under these huge marquees just for a day.

Many of our communities have suffered from the devastating failures of the ruling party to deliver essential services. The ANC is not embarrassed to reintroduce policies that have visibly failed in other countries. It is not ashamed to reintroduce policies that have dismally failed in other provinces. The case for cynicism with the ANC approach to governance is compelling.

It therefore falls to the IFP to restore common sense and natural order. We must make sure that it is to the IFP these communities turn next time there is an electoral opportunity. And this will be the upcoming local government election. We must bring hope where there is despair. It must be to us, the IFP, these communities look for correction, improvement, guidance and protection.

Our democracy is in free fall. The hard-won national consensus of the need to deliver essential services to all is in danger of collapsing. The government has forgotten that the people are the rulers. But the IFP has not forgotten that we are servants of the people.

To those in the media and the academia who are on the exciting lookout for a one-party state to emerge in South Africa, I have only this to say. South Africa is already a de facto one-party State. In a one-party state the quality of democracy inevitably suffers. I will tell you why.

The trouble with ruling parties in one-party states is that they run out of steam. They run out of ideas. Open debate slows down and eventually dies out. Complacency sets in. The ANC in power for 11 years is hardly a new broom. And you will agree with me when I say that we do need a new broom.

As I said elsewhere before, the difference between the ANC and the IFP is the difference between what South Africa is today and what it could, and should be, tomorrow. The difference is in both content and form. Unlike the ruling party, we do not treat our voters as a mass of useful robots who will turn up at the ballot box whenever necessary. We treat them as individuals who are looking up to us for advice and help with individual issues. We treat our people with respect.

I often hear from mothers who cannot afford to pay their children's school fees. I get letters from patients who have to walk too far to receive hospital treatment. I get to see pensioners who are waiting too long for the government pension to arrive.

The Inkatha Freedom Party is here for these mothers, patients and pensioners. We are here for all of them. We have the courage, the commitment and the conviction to address their issues, answer their queries, and fight - until the bittersweet end - for their rights; your rights. They are our people. You are our people. And we are your party. We have the experience having served most of them in this Province and having done so well.

The riots we have seen lately in the Western Cape, the Free State, Mpumalanga and even in this province can either herald a slow drift to a banana republic, as the Left keeps threatening us, or a peaceful change in government. The IFP is here to prevent the former and secure the latter.

A peaceful change in government does wonders. It creates magic. It invigorates the whole democratic process. It empowers all its players. But so does the time in opposition after a period in government. Our electoral setback in 2004 has given us an opportunity to rethink, reconsider and refreshen.

We are doing just that. We are rethinking our strategy, remaking our policies and reinventing ourselves. We have the courage, the commitment and the conviction to do so. We will be ready for the challenge in the upcoming Local Government Elections.

We will be the new broom South Africa needs. The invigorated IFP has a moral obligation not only to spell out where the government has gone wrong, but also to provide the better, democratic, non-racial alternative. 

In practice, the implementation of socio-economic rights on local government level, entrenched in our Constitution, is viewed with much skepticism. These rights, your rights, have largely become paper rights. This is not only the immediate legacy of the ANC administration. The current state of affairs will come to haunt anyone who may take over from the ruling party once the Local Government Election results are announced. The IFP does not fear this challenge. We are merely aware of it.

Our local government campaign must and will be candidate driven. I implore our branches to select candidates who know what the issues are in their communities. I want to see independent-minded candidates emerge with a proven track record of commitment and service in their communities.  Unfortunately I see emerging a crop of greedy jackals as can be seen in some parts of the Country who are only interested in Councillors' salaries.

Let the upcoming Local Government Election not be about competing political parties and their personalities. Let this election be about the delivery of basic services that fall within the competence of local government. Let this election be about municipal health services and provision of water and sanitation. Voters must judge for themselves, which political Party has had best service delivery at local level. Voters should check on which political Party has had more of their representatives at local level charged for committing acts of fraud and for corruption. They must check on which Councillors are convicted for committing all these shenanigans.

Let this election be about child care facilities and refuse removal and storm water management systems. Let this election be about municipal public transport, building regulations and electricity and gas reticulation. Let the upcoming election campaign capture the issues at the heart of local government. Let the election itself produce winners who will best manage them in their day-to-day interaction with the community.

I also want this election to be about the crisis in education. Confidence in our education system has been largely undermined. It is not only the educational institutions and the reputation of the whole system that are open to ridicule.

It is also the individual achievements of those who have done their best within the dysfunctional system and the collapsing educational institutions that are being- alas unfairly - laughed at as a result of transformation.  This transformation has witnessed too much unnecessary upheaval. Since 1994 we have not been able to successfully overhaul our system of education after the apartheid era

More resources than ever before are being poured into our educational system but do we see many tangible improvements? Real progress and improvement are being retarded by ideology. The IFP has always put education first. I have always known that there is no better start in life than a solid education.  Even in the apartheid era, when the ANC said political liberation before education, the IFP said education for liberation. It is true today as it was then.

We also need to ask ourselves whether the ANC is delivering on its education promises. You will be best placed to help me with the answers to this.  

Has the ANC fulfilled its promise of water and sanitation provision, and of having no learners under trees by March this year? No!

Is the ANC delivering on making our schools safe? No!

Is the ANC delivering on helping our teachers provide quality education? No!

Do we want the ANC in charge of education? No!

As we say no to the ANC, we know there is a solution to this crisis. The solution is the IFP, and as we say no to the ANC, we say yes to the IFP.

How would the IFP change the current situation in our schools?

The IFP would ensure that procurement policies be streamlined so that the test is whether the books can be delivered, not the current criteria, based on race and ANC connectivity. The IFP would prioritise provision of water and sanitation to our schools, because we are not run from Pretoria. We actually know where these schools are.

The IFP says every child must attend a decent school, and a decent school is not a tree. I cannot comprehend how government ministers can feel comfortable while learning takes place under trees. It is a national disgrace. If the national treasury can save R9 billion as it did last year, the IFP says use that money to alleviate the plight of our poorest learners immediately.

Use it to build schools, to fence existing schools, to provide after-care in our poorest communities in order to fight the wave of absolutely unacceptable child kidnappings - the latest scourge to hit this beloved country. Which child will be next? But our government trumpets its success in extending its tax base, putting away R9 billion while children and their parents live in fear.

The ANC is not helping our teachers to do their job well. Luckily, our teachers can succeed where government fails, and we can applaud them for their selfless service. However, our teachers can certainly do with a little help from the government. It is unacceptable that all too often teachers are not paid on time, that temporary teachers struggle to be paid correctly, that it takes between six and nine months for retired teachers in KZN - who have spent their best years caring for our future - receive their first pension pay-outs after resigning. The IFP believes these administrative disgraces to be entirely avoidable under strong IFP management.

In short, the IFP believes in hard work, discipline and self-help, rather than the ANC's disruptive grandiose schemes, the underfunded chaos OBE has become. It's dithering on what matric exams should be. What we see is the bitter fruit of liberation before education, against which I always warned.  Because what we see today is further proof that the ANC is willing to sacrifice quality education for short-term political gain. A leopard cannot change its spots, you cannot teach the ANC monkey new tricks.

So help me with the answers:

Do we need an IFP-led KZN department of Education which can deliver text-books on time? Yes!

Do we need the IFP to provide water, sanitation, and schools for learners under trees? Yes!

Do we need the IFP to make our schools safe? Yes!

Do we need the IFP to help our teachers provide quality education? Yes!

Do we need the IFP in charge of education? Yes!

These proposed solutions, however, only seek to rectify the fatal flaws in the current education system. For the future, the IFP has more profound plans. What we have in mind is a tax-funded voucher system whereby government makes payments directly to families or indirectly to selected schools that enable children to enter public or private schools of their choice.

The purpose of our voucher system is to increase parental choice, promote school competition and allow low income families access to private schools.  A typical voucher system, in which government subsidises schools of choice in strict proportion to enrolment, contributes to the growth in quantity and quality of schooling. This is what we want and South Africa needs. This type of voucher has been adopted with huge success by developed as well as developing countries such as Colombia, Bangladesh and our very neighbours in Lesotho.

By proposing education vouchers, the IFP will not be merely courting modernity. In a situation where only one out of 1 000 South African pupils in former "black" schools in grades three and six meet internationally benchmarked literacy and numeracy standards, the current education system must formally be declared a dismal failure and we are obliged to try something new. We owe it to our children.

To turn this into reality, we need to take back the province in 2009. The first step is success in the local government elections, because that is the foundation from which to take back the province. This afternoon you will hear what your role will be. Listen well, heed the call, do your bit and victory can be ours.

I believe that the defining characteristic of a civilised society is how we care for the vulnerable, not in the eloquence of its pronouncements. South Africa, judged by this standard, is not a civilised society.

Between 12 and 14 million people in South Africa are without access to safe water and over 20 million without adequate sanitation. Women and children are disproportionately affected by a lack of access to basic water services.  Rural women in KwaZulu-Natal spend more than four hours a day collecting water and wood. Thousands of South African children die annually of avoidable diseases related to poor sanitation and the lack of clean water.  Even taking into account the fact that these problems cannot be addressed at once the backlogs are still too high.

All this is unacceptable in a civilised society. These issues, as well as the big five of HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment, poverty and corruption, are the issues that the IFP will campaign on. The work of this Party will not be complete until there is not one child left who has not gone to bed hungry and without a day's worth of decent education. In the weeks and months ahead the IFP will be spelling out our proposals to deal with these issues.

The starting gun for the local government elections has been fired. Our role has been defined by the times in which we live. It is time to show the people of South Africa that we care. We are a caring party. One thing I have learnt in politics is that there is nothing more that people hate than political parties that just spend their time talking to themselves. Such parties lack courage, commitment and conviction. The people of South Africa do not want to hear the IFP talking about the IFP. They want to hear what the IFP is going to do for them.

I say that the 2004 election setback must never, never happen again! It is time to regain the districts and municipalities that we lost in the floor-crossing.

I am not going to deny that the last year has been, in many ways, a difficult one. We have had some tough adjustments to make and, perhaps, still some more to make. I have led this Party for thirty years. There were times when the road ahead seemed impossible. I have the scars to prove it. 

But you, the IFP family have kept me strong. You have kept the faith. For that and the marvelous support you give me, I thank you from the bottom of my heart. In the midst of battle often a leader does not have the chance to say 'thank you'. Today, I say it again: thank you. The theme that you chose for yourselves this year - "IFP YOUTH DRIVEN BY COURAGE, COMMITMENT AND CONVICTION" makes it quite clear that you as our Youth do understand the formula for turning things around in our Country. We cannot hope to achieve, without Courage, without Commitment and without Conviction.

We are often mocked and derided. I don't mind because my heart is filled with hope as I survey the young mighty army arrayed here today. Your presence here dispels the cynics and hopefuls who say that the IFP will not prevail. We must and will. A lot of ink has gone into writing obituaries of the IFP and that of its leadership by the media and by the so-called  analysts in the last three decades. Each time there is a spate of these obituaries in the media, we have by dint of hard work and through the Almighty been able to make all these prophets of doom to eat their words. A very prominent political leader in this Country the late Mr Joe Slovo predicted in 1994, that after that first democratic election: "Buthelezi will just be a smell in history". We won a majority in this Province in 1994 and emerged as the second predominantly black Party after the ruling Party. A lot of factors have been responsible for the image of our losing support during elections. I do not suggest that we should ignore this, not by any means, but the fact of the matter is that even the ruling Party the ANC which has 70 percent majority was elected by only 38 percent of the voters!

Even the reduction in the number of votes that we were able to garner at various elections has not yet changed the fact that of all predominantly black Parties we are still in the number two play after the majority Party, the ANC. We realise that we need to do our utmost to regain some lost ground. I expect our Youth to canvass for the Party by conducting door to door Campaigns everywhere. But before that happens, let us go flat-out to register because your support is meaningless if you do not register to vote.  Your support is useless if you do not go all out to register as many voters as possible right now. Do not wait for the final registration of next month. From this Conference next week please go all out to do these things.  You must understand that quite a number of our voters have refused to vote ever since the ANC amended the Constitution to put the immoral floor-crossing legislation on our statute books. Please realise that we need to persuade our people who are disgusted because of this immoral floor-crossing legislation, to register to vote and to vote. Please assist many of our elderly voters to reach the polling stations in order to vote. I know that you have the courage to undertake this great task. I also know that you have committed yourselves to doing these things. I know that you are members of this Party out of conviction. It is that conviction that has brought you here today in such large numbers. You have chosen THE THREE Cs yourselves. That is your own formula - COURAGE, COMMITMENT and CONVICTION.

You also join an invisible army who have gone before us - too many to mention - who fought the good fight. And today, I can see that you carry theirs and the dreams of the South African people. The Inkatha dream of giving the people their dignity and self-respect back with the tools of self-help and self-reliance began thirty years ago. Never before in our movement's history has our dream burned brighter than it does today. 

Let us place our trust in God in whose light we move and have our being.  With God, we are more than conquerors. God bless this Party as we seek to serve Him. God bless our Youth Brigade for carrying the torch. God bless South Africa and all her people.

God Bless you all.