Programme Director, Mr B V Mthetwa, Uthungulu District Chairman of the IFP, Mr S V Naicker MPP, men and women of goodwill from the business sector, my brothers and sisters from the Indian community and comrades from the National Teachers Union.

I am delighted that at long last Mr S V Naicker's dream has been realized. It took a lot of patience and perseverance for this meeting to be realized. Mr S V Naicker is endowed with the attributes which have contributed to the success of this meeting. I accordingly commend him for a job well done. I do not for a moment imply that Mr S V Naicker has been working single-handed. Fellow comrade B V Mthetwa and the Uthungulu District leadership have played their part. We accordingly thank them.

This meeting is held twenty days before the eventful day i.e. the election day on 14 April 2004. I need not remind you that this will be an epoch making election. The fate of democracy in this province and in our country will be finally decided at the polls in KwaZulu Natal. Put differently KwaZulu Natal is the battlefield for democracy in this country. Thus every man and woman of goodwill has a moral obligation to play a significant role which will ensure a resounding electoral victory for the IFP. We pride ourselves that we are the champions of democracy. It will thus be a fitting tribute that we be empowered by voters to entrench democracy in this country. Whoever intends abstaining from voting shall contribute to the entrenchment of the ANC hegemony which we regard as a threat to democracy. I earnestly appeal to all men and women of goodwill to go to the polls on April 14. Every man and women of goodwill should have a stake in the transport arrangements to be put in place by this district to up the voter turn out.

I am not convinced that all of us within the City of Umhlathuze are aggressively marketing the IFP as the party to be voted into power. I am looking forward to the setting up of IFP tables displaying our election material including our manifestos at all shopping malls within our city. There is no reason why walk-abouts should not be conducted. One would expect that house- to - house campaigns will be conducted.

The IFP is committed to a peaceful election. We are champions of peace and tolerance. We declare that every party is free to campaign without any impediments placed on its way, without any acts of intimidation and violence being displayed. We remain committed to the Electoral Code of Conduct. We accordingly reject with all contempt any statements which associate us with violence during the election campaign. It is a gross insult for any editor of a credible paper to accuse the IFP of benefiting from political violence.

All citizens of our beloved country are proud of our 1996 Constitution. It is this basic law of our country which provides for the Bill of Rights. All our fundamental rights are protected by law. Any infringement thereof is contestable in any of our courts of law. May I remind those who have conveniently forgotten that every citizen enjoys the following rights : the right to social grants, the right to housing and the right to development. No sane person can ever place these rights in jeopardy. Public funds voted by parliament should be expended equitably to uphold these rights.

The issues of this election campaign have not been chosen by political parties. In fact, it might be the first time in our recent history that the issues of this election have been chosen by the South African people. This is reflected in the fact that all political parties are effectively running on the same issues and attempts to shift discussions away from them have failed.

The election campaign is about the issues of HIV/AIDS, crime, unemployment, corruption and poverty in rural areas. These issues are very well known to all South Africans and need no explanation. In one way or the other, all our families are suffering because of them. These issues represent the areas in which the ANC government has failed to deliver during the past ten years in general, and during the past five years in particular.

We are all directly or indirectly affected or infected by HIV/AIDS. We are facing an holocaust of unprecedented dimension, while our ruling class is dealing with it by means of public relation campaigns while delaying the roll out of a medical and social emergency plan. Crime has been out of control for years but the ruling class has first denied the existence of this problem and has then tried to trivialize it. I know of no South African who has not been a victim of crime, or does not live in fear of becoming one. The situation in rural areas has deteriorated in many respects in the past ten years, because of the collapse of subsistence agriculture and food security. Conversely, corruption has increased and with it the perception of impunity. Corruption has developed at the highest level of government and is permeating many levels of our administration. It has also infiltrated itself in many sectors of our civil society and is becoming a cancer, gradually eating away at our social and economic life.

Unemployment has grown from 29% to 40% and there is no credible plan to generate employment, other than those put forward by the IFP and the DA. Our country still does not have a plan to accelerate its rate of economic growth. We need to develop a new industrial basis for South Africa, which can explain to all of us how we as a country are going to earn a living in the age of globalization. The world does not owe us a living and we need to identify now what type of products our country will bring into the global markets in twenty years. We believe that South Africa has the opportunity of becoming an excellent country while, as it stands, it seems to be destined to remain a mediocre one because government has failed to formulate a long-term vision for its growth and development.

These are the real problems of South Africa, both as they are and as people perceive them. It is significant that there is a great degree of accuracy on how people are perceiving our problems. These are the five areas in respect of which the ANC government has been particularly negligent. The next elections are going to be about how these problems are to be solved. If the South African people wish to have five more years of the same neglect, they can continue to empower the ANC. The IFP and the DA have come together to give the South African people the hope of a democratic alternative. They are a government in waiting. It is for the South African people to have the courage to elect it.

If one reviews our proposals, it is obvious that by working together, the IFP and the DA can produce a million real job opportunities. We have a long-term vision on how to get the country to work. Our solutions are not easy and we will ask the South African people to walk the uphill road towards prosperity, which will call for sacrifice, social discipline, productivity and long-term commitments. The old South Africa was built with the blood and sweat of all, but for the benefit of a few privileged members of the white community. We feel that a prosperous new South Africa will need to be built with the sacrifice and contribution of all, but this time for the equitable benefit of all. This is more than a cliche. It is an actual plan of action which calls for a new social contract amongst all South Africans. The IFP-DA coalition are the seeds of this contract.

If we look at KwaZulu Natal, it is obvious that the IFP-DA coalition has already produced tangible results, in terms of better governance and increased delivery in the short time span of two years. If the same parties were to become the next government of South Africa, the whole of the country could become a really extraordinary place. We firmly believe that Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi would be an extraordinary President and under his presidency, South Africa would be an extraordinary country. We must have the courage to conceive a dream which is larger than our present horizons, because on election day the South African people have indeed the power to make miracles happen. We believe that the miracle of a democratic alternative is necessary for the whole of South Africa.

Our democracy is in great jeopardy. The signs are there for everyone to see, even though many prefer ignoring them. We are witnessing the rapid consolidation of an embryonic one-party state. Among the issues of this election is indeed whether our democracy is to move forward or backward. KwaZulu Natal has become the battlefield on which the survival of our democracy will be tested. The ANC changed the Constitution to allow elected representatives to cross the floor, in spite of the fact that they were elected on a different type of mandate. Crossing of the floor is allowed in many countries but it is unheard of that political representatives elected on the basis of one system could change the terms of their mandate in midstream. It is obvious that the ANC is willing to change the Constitution, not only at will but even at whim to accommodate its desire to control all centres of power in the country.

If this happens the dialectics of democracy will suffer and it might take twenty years before there could be again a variety of centres of power at work in our country. Today KwaZulu Natal is the only government left which has the autonomy to create different policies and think differently from the centre. We gave proof of the importance of such an autonomy in respect of our policy to distribute anti-retroviral drugs to prevent mother-to-child transmission of HIV/AIDS. In so doing we corrected what was a tragic policy of the central government, which dealt with our country's greatest tragedy with almost criminal neglect. Democracy is exactly about different provinces and levels of government being able to correct one another's mistakes through competition of efforts and ideas. Our democracy stands to become stifled if the ANC is not cut down to size. It would be important for our country that no political party had the power to unilaterally change our Constitution.

These are all challenges before the South African people. At the next elections the South African people must choose whether they really wish the issues of HIV/AIDS, unemployment, crime, corruption and poverty to be solved. Whether they want more or less democracy. Whether they want people in power who rule through ideology and empty promises or people who act and deliver.

The ANC is moved by ideology, not pragmatism. For instance, their proposal to open up the country to any foreigner coming from the whole of Africa, China, Russia and India, in addition to another host of countries, is nothing short of irresponsible. South Africa needs to be thankful to Minister Buthelezi who stopped such a proposal and enabled a process to take place which will put it up for public scrutiny, rather than being adopted through by means of a Cabinet decision and in violation of a process of public participation. There is no doubt that if the country were open, up to 2.9 billion people from some of the poorest and most volatile regions in the world, every community would be overrun by unneeded immigrants who are not beneficial to our country. We are in favour of beneficial immigration, but we know that no other country has waived visa requirements the way the Minister of Foreign Affairs and the President wanted to.

The South African people must reflect on these matters as they are very concerning. South Africa needs the pragmatist and visionary leadership of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi. 

The next elections should be about what type of leadership South Africa needs. We strongly feel that the solution to many South African problems lies in the measure and quality of leadership that Minister Buthelezi and his partners can provide to our country. 

On the day of election each political party is entitled to appeal to the South African people to ensure that its leader may become the next President.