ELECTION MEETING OF THE IFP

ADDRESS BY MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI, MP

Pinetown : APRIL 29, 1999

It is a great pleasure to once again be in Pinetown to share with you my hopes and concerns on the eve of these important elections. I have maintained a long-standing dialogue with the community of Pinetown. This is a very important community for our province and in its microcosm it represents many of the contradictions and hopes of South Africa. If through our political work we can make a difference for the better in this community, I am quite sure that together we can chart a course ahead which will be beneficial to the whole of South Africa.

I often feel that when facing the next elections South Africa stands at a crossroads of two diverging paths. One path is clearly uphill and leads towards prosperity but looks threatening and filled with difficulties and obstacles. The second path shows a leisurely downhill ride but leads to further economic decline and social disintegration. I have taken upon myself the difficult role of trying to lead South Africans of goodwill to choose to walk on the first path. It is going to be difficult but I feel that there is no alternative.

The situation in our country is not good. In many government circles there is a widespread unwillingness to recognise the grave problems confronting ordinary people. For four years I have been denouncing in Parliament the rapidly escalating levels of crime, corruption and breakdown of law and order. Because I spoke up, I was often castigated as a pessimist. I am an optimist and believe that if we engage our problems, we can solve them, but I do not let my optimism confuse my vision of reality. I am a realist.

On the eve of elections some people in government seem to have snapped out of their syndrome of denial and are beginning to recognise that we are facing a generalised and endemic disintegration of the legal fibre of our communities. In fact, law and order is disintegrating not only in the social dynamics of our communities, but also in the hearts and minds of our people. People are beginning to doubt that there is value in a clear distinction between right and wrong, and often live in a social environment which places them in a status of altered reality where respect for human life, property and fundamental values fades away. No threat could be more serious.

It will be difficult to solve this problem of criminality for as long as those in power are unwilling to recognise its full measure and its root causes. We need more police stations, more and better trained and paid policemen, and a better police force. But policing alone is not sufficient. We need to reach for the hearts and minds of our people. In order to do so, the next government must wake up to the seriousness of the problem and send the message out that the time of rebellion, ungovernability and social upheaval is over. We need the IFP in government to give credibility to such message.

For too long people have been told that it was acceptable to engage in illegal and disruptive behaviour. The same people who were part of the problem cannot now have the required credibility to push forward difficult solutions. The seriousness of the problem has been denied for too long. I fear that unless a clear message emerges in the next elections, many of those who denied the existence of this problem may revert into their syndrome of denial immediately after elections. Acknowledging the root causes of crime is difficult, and it is even more difficult to devise solutions capable of solving them.

A message which reaches deep into the hearts and minds of our people and into all our communities requires the moral credibility of the IFP. The IFP rejected the armed struggle and the campaign to make communities  ungovernable, especially black communities. Government needs the IFP to impress upon all our communities that the difference between right and wrong does indeed exist and this difference is of vital importance not only for organised life but for each individual concerned. Without the IFP there is just going to be more of the same, which in spite of good intentions is just not good enough.

The next government will need to project a strong and credible leadership with the moral authority required to lead a national campaign of law and order. The fight against crime cannot be won with the same attitude which has been employed for the past five years. The fight against crime can also not be won by relying exclusively on what the opposition can do and say.

The opposition cannot govern and by itself it cannot change things, nor ensure a better and different future for all of us. I remain convinced that if people vote for the ruling party they are effectively demanding five more years of the same. If people vote for the opposition they are also setting in place conditions which will produce five more years of the same. If they wish for something better, they must forge a better alternative and a better government. Only by strengthening the IFP will the electorate ensure that the next government will indeed be a better one. The stronger the IFP after the elections, the better the next government will be.

The IFP has not made any commitment in respect of its position after elections. Obviously, our first prize would be that of leading a new and better government. I have fought all my life to empower people and believe that people have the power to choose their preferred government. It is not the media which choose government, but the people. If the people choose the IFP, the IFP will be the next government, whether the media and various business or trade union potentates like it or not. Voting in this election should not be regarded as an act of allegiance to a party or a leader, but as a report card written by the people about the past five years of government. If people are serious about speaking up about their discontent they should empower the IFP, and they have the God-given right to do so.

However, even if this goal is not attained we will try to make good on our electoral promise of making South Africa governable and indeed governed. We will negotiate with and engage the ruling parties, and make our contribution to the government of the country in any way and with any means available to us under the circumstances of the future. The country must be governed and we can no longer wait to be properly governed. The IFP will continue to provide its contribution in any way it can to make this possible. The stronger the IFP after elections, the more the country will be governed and governable. The next government will need to focus on governance and can no longer rely on public relations operations or feel-good politics. We will need to begin dealing with the real issues forcibly, courageously and with determination.

We must begin acknowledging the rapid decline of our economy and the fact that, in the past five years, we lost almost half a million jobs. This is a dramatic indictment of the new South Africa. The most important aspect of governance is to ensure that people do not starve or live in abject social and economic conditions. Undoubtedly, during the past five years we have achieved a lot of good, but what we have done is not good enough and we need the contribution of the IFP in government to do better.

In Parliament we have passed about 500 new laws which have created greater legal freedom for our people and more justice in our legal system, but at the same time we have lost about 500,000 jobs, almost one thousand jobs for each law. We need now to shift the emphasis of our government and perhaps pay less attention to the laws and more to the economy and the escalating cost of bread and butter.

The new government must continue our struggle for genuine liberation and freedom. We cannot be free for as long as the majority of our people are enslaved under the yoke of poverty and unemployment. There cannot be freedom if people do not work and earn sufficient means to support themselves and their families. Without the blessing of work and a productive life, the constitutional promise entrenched in the right to dignity remains meaningless. Work is dignity and we must fulfil this right for all.

We have one of the most democratic constitutions in the world, and yet the rights which we have achieved through the political process, remain meaningless when people live below the breadline and must struggle every day to find food and satisfy their most basic needs. For as long as we tolerate poverty to enslave people in a condition which is not human, we are making a mockery of the many constitutional declarations of human rights.

Constitutional rights are important and essential, and we have achieved tremendously by enshrining them within our society and system of governance. However, we should not stop there. We must go much further. The IFP has never sought quick-fix solutions which do not work and has the long-term vision to pursue long-term solutions which work today, tomorrow and the day after. When other components of the liberation movement thought that democracy could be quickly achieved in South Africa through the barrel of the gun and through the armed struggle and international economic sanctions, the IFP preached negotiations, negotiations and negotiations.

The armed struggle destroyed the social fibre of our poorest communities, leaving behind a legacy of violence and lawlessness with which we must now deal. Sanctions and dis-investments severely damaged our economy setting us back enormously in our efforts to create jobs and new wealth for all. In the end we were proven right, as for years we all ended up right where I thought we should be, at the negotiating table. We knew it would take time to get it right, but we were not heard, and the armed struggle, dis-investments and sanctions destroyed much of the stability and prosperity we could have enjoyed now. Today we also know that it will take time, but this time around South Africa cannot afford not to listen to the IFP.

We must accept that social and economic conditions cannot be changed overnight. It was arduous and it took a long time to reach the milestone of a democratic constitution and political freedom, and yet when we are faced with the economic and social challenges that lie ahead, we must realise that we have walked only the short leg of our journey towards genuine liberation. We must ensure that through the next elections, the people of South Africa empower a courageous and determined government which can accelerate the growth of our economy, create job opportunities and set in place the necessary conditions to produce greater wealth.

The next government needs to be one which understands the economy and the market place and can make them work for the benefit of all South Africans. The economic policies of the present government have been engulfed in too much ambivalence, indecision and timidity of action. We need a clear vision and the courage and determination to pursue it. To complicate this ambivalence of vision, the ruling party has allowed itself to be held to ransom by trade unionists and the South African Communist Party.

The IFP participated in the formulation of the Growth Employment and Redistribution [GEAR] strategy which was designed to implement the macro-economic plan of government. The GEAR strategy was good when conceived, but it was frustrated by the veto of trade union barons and communists, contributing to our present economic decline. Now even GEAR is insufficient, and the IFP has pointed out that we must now go beyond GEAR.

We cannot go beyond GEAR if the next government does not have the guts to force the right-sizing of the influence of the new trade union aristocracy which has now emerged. We need the IFP’s guts for this purpose. It is clear that there is little we can expect from the ruling party when it comes down to controlling the power of trade unions. Trade unions have forced the adoption of several pieces of populist labour legislation which is more in the interests of trade unionists than workers. This legislation has empowered a new cast of trade union barons with their own interests which no longer coincide with those of workers. We really have a corporative-type labour structure which will lead to the point that business cannot operate without the approval of trade unions. This spells out further economic decline and job losses.

We cannot expect a change of heart from the ruling party. Even on the eve of elections the signs are clear. The ruling party’s own manifesto does not even mention GEAR, perhaps in fear of upsetting trade unionists and communists. This omission is shocking if one thinks that GEAR is the cornerstone of the attempts made by the government to create employment and economic growth. However, it may not be a surprise if one considers that they are willing to turn over the leadership of our most populous province and our commercial heartland, to the leader of a trade union, COSATU, which rejects GEAR. The signs are so clearly written all around us that only those who wish to remain blind do not see them.

I am not against trade unionism. I was the founder of the first black Institute for black workers, when black workers were barred from becoming members of trade unions. I founded the Institute for Industrial Education right here in Durban with Professor Lawrence Schlemmer. All my life I have fought for trade unionism and the rights of workers. It is because I am a great supporter of trade unionism that I believe trade unions should not become a part of government. Trade unions should not pursue the interests of trade unionists, but the interest of workers. We need to protect the interests of workers by re-establishing proper independent and free trade unionism and by allowing business to perform its essential function of wealth-generation.

The IFP has the plan to get our economy started. The IFP will put forward the cornerstone of a macro-economic plan capable of accelerating our presently-declining rate of economic growth into two-digit figures. It must be clear that this plan will involve economic austerity and equally distributed sacrifices. We are not promising an easy ride ahead. The alternative is between the IFP’s hard and uphill road to prosperity and the present leisurely downhill ride into poverty and chaos. Across the board this is the choice. People can choose to either empower the IFP or have more of the same social and economic decline. I hope that together we can change the tide.

Together we can do it, and with the help of God we shall do it. Together we can lead a revolution of goodwill which empowers the people of goodwill to rule the country and begin the hard work required to build prosperity and stability. Together we can make South Africa a better place for us and for our posterity. But we must give the country a new beginning in the right direction. In 33 days we shall have this final opportunity. I urge all of you to urge your friends and their friends’ friends to send the word out.

We must convince all people of goodwill that together we can succeed. We can turn the tide around. Not the media, not the fat-cat politicians, not the trade unions, not big business. Just we, the people of goodwill, can take charge and bring about a revolution which gives South Africa a new start. We can do it together if we send the word out that the time has come. The IFP elephant is leading a revolution of goodwill to empower the people and make South Africa finally governable. If we win, you win.

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