I am delighted to be present today and honoured to say a few words in my capacity as the Traditional Prime Minister of the Zulu Nation and Chairperson of the House of Traditional Leaders. I first would like to thank the Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism for extending this gracious invitation.

The Ingoma Festival reminds us that our culture is of our essence. If our culture was stripped away, we would disintegrate as a people. Or as one Nobel Peace Laureate memorably put it, 'to live without a past is worse than to live without a future'. And in the last day, but one, of the year, we do, indeed, look to the future.

I find it lovely that this festival falls within a week that we also celebrate a festival that commemorates the arrival of the Prince of Peace into our world. I believe that the celebration of our culture, such as by the wearing of traditional dress, dancing and singing, complements and enhances our Christian tradition.

Many of you will recall I re-established the tradition of holding King Shaka Day in Stanger, King Shaka's burial site. Some of my critics falsely dismissed Shaka's Day as being a revival of pagan traditions.

What nonsense! I have never wavered in my belief that Christ is the Rock on which we stand, a truth I learnt on the knee of my mother.

Rather I did so in the belief that if our nation was to survive and flourish then we must return to the founding principle which nourished our nascent nation: the principle of unity and strength. The King Shaka principle. I still believe this as passionately today. United we stand, divided we fall.

You will also remember that one of the very first projects we undertook in the erstwhile KwaZulu government was to establish the Bureau for the Zulu Language and Culture. I did this in the knowledge that if were to progress as a people, we needed to be solidly anchored in the bedrock of our language and culture.

In the year that we have celebrated ten years of democracy, a lively debate is taking place throughout our society about the need to protect our constituent languages and traditions. This is important to other communities, such as the Afrikaners, as it is to us.

Some have argued that a concern expressed over the survival of a culture or a people might be a camouflage about a standard of living, an insincere concern or even undiluted racism. I do recognise that often in our country's troubled history symbols of culture, race and tradition have been perverted to sow discord and division amongst our disparate peoples.

Yet I am of the view that all our constituent traditions should be respected and cherished if we are to move forward as one nation. The celebration of our diverse cultures, such as this one today, will strengthen our nation, not weaken it. United we stand, divided we fall.

From our culture we derive the steadfast knowledge that we are not alone. Our Zulu culture emphasises that we are linked to our ancestors. We are not mere products of random chance. Through our culture we hear our ancestors whispering to us, exhorting us to live harmoniously with our environment.

It is from our cultural inheritance that we derive the wisdom to make decisions that sustain our communities. Within culture and tradition, communities, such as ours, have the opportunity to access the ancient and tested ways of living. In this manner, we find the strength to meet the challenges of any hardship that comes our way.

The greatest hardship we face at present is the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Today, more than at any time in our history, our culture and traditions must be respected and embraced. For we live in an hour in which young people die untimely deaths in Old Testament numbers. We live in a time when parents bury the children they raised. At present the unmerciful epidemic has claimed over a million lives, most in rural areas, like this one.

Not only must we return to our culture and traditions, but I believe our nation desperately needs a moral rebirth, if we are to overcome HIV/AIDS.

Two weeks ago, I returned from Uganda. The story of Uganda today is an undisputed success story in fighting the HIV/AIDS pandemic. Uganda has much fewer resources to muster than South Africa. Yet the Ugandan people, under the leadership of President Yoweri Museveni, have succeeded in reducing the rate of the pandemic from 30 percent to 5 percent.

How did they do it?

In July last year I had the privilege of attending the South African Christian Leadership Assembly (SACLA II) which was addressed by the wife of President Museveni of Uganda, Mrs Janet Museveni. She told us that the Ugandan people have fought the pandemic by returning to some of the indigenous mores of the Ugandan people, as well as following the teachings of the Church on the importance of chastity before marriage.

She quoted a speech by her husband, President Yoweri Museveni in ITALY in 1998. She said that President Museveni stated that if the only thing that should save Uganda from the pandemic of HIV/AIDS is just a piece of rubber, refer to condoms, then he said if that is the case, then we are already doomed. There is a moral regeneration campaign going on in our Country. I believe that it is high time we moved from just talk about moral regeneration to concrete action. We learn that the incidence of HIV/AIDS in this Province has gone up to 37 percent, that is 3 percent less than 40 percent. This should be our wake up call for all of us.

Amakhosi of this Kingdom met a couple of years ago in ULUNDI to establish Task Teams of Amakhosi in order to face up to the pandemic of HIV/AIDS. I believe that time for action is either now or never. We need to have in every area of each Inkosi, people getting together under each Induna to look at all the customs of our people which ensured that young maidens in Zulu society retained their virginity tests and look at how our young men can also be guided to respect our young women before marriage. If we do not rise up as the Zulu Nation and do something concrete about the pandemic of HIV/AIDS, no one will do it for us.

Uganda is a shining example for us.

Returning to the purpose of today's festival, let me stress that the celebration of our culture and traditions, such as those we enjoying today, serve a source of unity in our society. Once again, we experience a life enhancing sense of community, continuity, and harmonious living.

We are especially reminded at this time of year that live in a spiritual as well as a material world. Culture possesses the wonderful - magical - ability to strengthen the moral fibre of our society.

I must also, once again, heartily congratulate the Department of Arts, Culture and Tourism and Amakhosi for organising this festival and extending this invitation.