At last week's Annual General Conference of the Inkatha Freedom Party, I unequivocally laid out the parameters of the relationship between the ANC and the IFP.  I felt compelled to do so in response to the overtures to the IFP from the President of the ANC, Mr Jacob Zuma, in recent times.  It is Mr Zuma, not me or the IFP leadership, who has squarely placed this matter in the public domain.

The most obvious and blatant example was two weeks ago when Mr Zuma addressing the Twelve Apostles Church in Emgababa, urged believers to pray that the "IFP and the ANC may have this love demonstrated by you, so that there may be a marriage that results from this love."

As a believer and follower of Christ, I take seriously an exhortation to prayer from wherever it comes.  I believe in the power of prayer to "move mountains" and have long participated in prayer meetings for our nation.

Equally, I believe in the power of love to shape national destinies, as well as those of individuals.

After all the story of South Africa, and of KwaZulu Natal in particular, where Mr Zuma has played a major role, is one of pervasive hope shining through the multiple dangers of a transitional society; of the importance of the choices we make in life and how personal and collective triumph can emerge when we choose love over rage.  And with our violent past, we know all too well, that grief is the price we pay for love.

One must however draw a clear dividing line between the notions of 'reconciliation'; 'peace' (which is more than the mere absence of violence and 'hegemony')

 First, a word about the concept of reconciliation.  In my view, it is too often spoken about in chocolate box language.  By the nature of its participants (human-beings), reconciliation is imperfect, often uneven and a work-in-progress.  There is little wonder that the concept is often inspired by theological notions particularly the Judeo-Christian principle of redemption - notions which Mr Zuma showing characteristic affability, tapped into.

And yes, if I was to point to what I believe is the single greatest achievement since the advent of democracy, it would, undoubtedly, be inculcation of a spirit of reconciliation amongst our communities.  If one looks to the other countries seeking to heal internecine divisions, be it in Chile, Rwanda, the former Yugoslavia, Ireland or elsewhere, it is clear that South Africa emerges as a model, indeed a golden template of reconciliation.

People here took the Constitution and the Bill of Rights to heart.  To a large extent this success has been due to the fact that reconciliation has been an organic 'from the community upwards', rather than a 'top-down', process.  African people are slowly finding each other - too slowly, but at least the train is going in the right direction.

As for the process of reconciliation between the IFP and the ANC, I would contend, however, the process has largely been the inverse of the national project.  Whilst the relationship between the national leadership has been defined by civility and even a little humour, much work at the ground level remains to be done.

The work of the various three, ten and fifteen aside ANC/IFP committees between the two organizations remains incomplete and my unanswered letter of January 4, 2008 to Mr Zuma after his election as President of the ANC.  This letter detailed the outstanding obstacles to reconciliation between our two organizations. 

In fact it is not the first letter I have written to him. I wrote to Mr Zuma as Deputy President of the ANC and to Mr Kgalema Motlante as Secretary-General of the ANC some years ago. Neither of them had even the decency to acknowledge receipt of my correspondence. So I was not surprised that my January letter had not been responded to before Mr Zuma spoke at the Twelve Apostles' Church Revival Meeting. Some months ago an ANC MEC in the ANC KwaZulu Provincial Government told me that he has a copy of my letter to Mr Zuma in his computer. I was therefore, hoping that I was going to hear soon from the President of the ANC just about receiving my letter, but as usual it was not to be.

And then, of course, there is peace which follows genuine reconciliation.

We remember that the 20 000 people who died in a low-intensity civil war in the late eighties and early nineties were members of both organizations.  We also lost thousands of our members who were also murdered and 400 of the cream of our leadership.

We South Africans know all too well that war is a grisly wasteland.

People on both side of this bitter war suffered and inflicted painful suffering.  I am sure more information, much more, pertaining to human rights violations committed by all sides could be unearthed if we continue to dig.

And concerning the so-called 'digging' that I am referring to, there has been an example of this sort of thing this very week.  In commenting about the assassinations of Mr Bhekisisa Mthethwa of the IFP and Mr Wonderboy Phelakho of the ANC in the last two weeks, the ANC in Ethekwini through Mr John Mchunu called for the arrest of the IFP's former member of the Provincial Legislature Mr Phillip Powell from Britain. They have stated that the scorpions revealed in 2004 that of the weaponry revealed by Mr Powell only 10 tons of the original consignment was revealed.

The ANC statement went on to state: "We are calling for the re-opening of Powell's case and the collection of all arms that he distributed in KwaZulu-Natal since we believe that the big machine guns that are currently used in Jacobs and T Section are the same artillery of Powell's" and the ANC statement as has been the case over the years, is backed up by Ms Mary De Haas that political gadfly masquerading as an academic, as follows: "There are more than 50 different places where arms were kept. Powell can help to give information about the whereabouts of some of the arms. He should not have been allowed to leave the country because he knows a lot about where arms were buried"; De Haas said.

Quite frankly, the IFP has been incensed by the allegations that Mr Mthethwa was gunned down by a weapon from the so-called 'undisclosed Powell's arms caches'.

The implication is of course that Mr Mthethwa was killed by a weapon that somehow remained accessible to IFP supporters, in other words that he was murdered by his own people. This is pure nonsense.

We in the IFP maintain that Philip Powell, former KwaZulu Government official who received a consignment of arms from the SANDF, duly divulged all arms caches to the post-apartheid South African authorities which subsequently granted him permission to emigrate. 

The IFP views the proliferation of such allegations in the context of the upcoming election campaign. We also contend that allegations involving apartheid-era arms caches are allowed to thrive on the unhelpful premise that the ANC's armed struggle was merely "suspended" in the early 1990s rather than abandoned.

It is strange that the Scorpions, who according to the ANC Polokwane decision are accused of all sorts of political agendas, are quoted by the ANC here when it suits their agenda. However, concerning this sort of 'digging' I would like to know when ANC arms caches that were buried all over South Africa were ever pointed out to the Police and given up.

I do not recall a single instance when this was done. In fact I remember the late Mr Sifiso Nkabinde telling me in front of a witness who is alive that Mr Chris Hani had shown him where some of these caches were.

And that one of the reasons why the ANC in the Province had turned against him and had an agenda to assassinate him was because they knew that he knew where some of the caches of the ANC's Umkhonto weSizwe caches were buried. I was not surprised after Mr Nkabinde's assassination when some fingers were pointing at some of the ANC members. It is a fact that the Hounourable Mr Thabo Mbeki and other leaders of the ANC asked for and received amnesty from the TRC. 

We do not know for what violations of human rights they sought that amnesty.

I am not re-opening the matter at all.  But I am just illustrating the kind of dangers of the mud-slinging that the ANC leadership in the Province of KwaZulu- Natal is indulging can lead to.

This can go on to no end, and in fact it has always the potential of re-igniting the undesirable flames of political violence. None of us want to see that ever again.  That is why I have for decades drawn the attention of the national leadership, to the hostility of the KwaZulu-Natal ANC leadership to me and the IFP.

But, alas, the fragile process of reconciliation is still marred by acts of sporadic violence because, I argue, the former has still not been properly completed.

As I have already indicated two weeks ago, on 16 August, hot on the heels after two IFP members who were attacked near Tehuis Hostel at Umlazi allegedly by ANC members, another IFP leader was gunned down in Durban.

Mr Bhekisisa Mthethwa, who was the Chairperson of the IFP Branch at Jacobs Hostel, was shot to death at 04h30 at Montclair railway station as he was on his way to work.  Since the IFP made inroads into the Jacobs Hostel, Mr Mthethwa and other IFP members have been living under threats of attack, allegedly by ANC members who are not happy with the IFP's gains within the hostel, previously-known as the ANC stronghold.

Last year, Mr Mthethwa spent some time in hospital after surviving gun shots.

This tragic and unresolved case brings me directly to the question of genuine political competition and 'hegemony'.  It is relevant to this question to restate that the dynamics of political culture in the new South Africa, and especially in highly contested KwaZulu Natal, have their roots in the struggle for political liberation.  In the highly contested struggle for political liberation, democratization was not the priority of the ANC and its associates, but rather 'regime change'.

Unquestioned loyalty to the movement and the shaping of a single liberation narrative have defined today's ruling political elite, in which state and party are equated.  And the line is blurred between them.  Unity for the ANC in the struggle was synonymous not only with its internal unity but with the unity of all the liberation movements.

The ANC conceived the armed struggle as the lightening rod, as it were, for establishing political hegemony of the liberation.  The IFP, by contrast, advocated diversity of roles within the liberation movement as the basis for political pluralism after liberation.

The ANC's post-liberation pursuit of the National Democratic Revolution has had far reaching impact upon our culture.  As the ANC would not accept the IFP's vision of unity within the liberation movement, expressed in a diversity of roles before 1994, the ruling party today expects uncritical consensus around particular programmes of social action.  And so it is today.

The ruling party's view, and I am pretty sure Mr Zuma's view, is that opposition parties should not be adversarial, confrontational or 'constructive'. 

If the opposition fails in this test, it is often labeled as being counter-revolutionary, regressive, unpatriotic, or 'not African'.  The latter two labels, I am happy to say, are pejoratives that the ANC have found difficult to pin me on!

The current argument about multiparty democracy in South Africa, thrown back into the spotlight with the publication of Tony Leon's brilliant memoirs, is therefore not about its relative importance but rather its sheer survival.

It is not the self-proclaimed victors of the liberation struggle in the ruling party who keep our democracy alive; it is us on the opposition benches.  Our own survival is indeed the survival of multiparty democracy.

And we can only survive in a political culture with flourishing tolerance; a culture which only we can assist the ruling party to recreate, maintain and perpetuate.

So, it was this burning conviction which led me to unequivocally state to the IFP Conference last weekend that whilst I share Mr Zuma's desire for our two parties to enjoy a good functioning relationship befitting our parliamentary democracy, a "marriage" or merger is not on the agenda today, tomorrow, or in the future.  In short, the IFP will be fighting and fighting to win next year as a political competitor, reconciled, but distinct from the ruling party.

In this context I am rather flummoxed by Mr Zuma's reaction to my reading my January letter to him, to delegates to our Conference.  Mr Zuma is quoted in the media chiding me for doing so, stating that the letter that I wrote to him was just between the two of us.  I was not revealing the contents of the letter to Mr Zuma in order to embarrass Mr Zuma in anyway.  That would not promote the agenda of reconciliation.  I was merely saying that whilst we are all committed to the rapprochement and reconciliation that Mr Zuma is talking about, let us do the first things first.

The first things that I think should be attended to first  are all the outstanding issues that I mentioned in the letter to him.  I was merely pointing out that if Mr Zuma is sincere about asking for prayer for that reconciliation between members of our organizations, he needs to attend to simple things such as acknowledging receipt of my letters to him and for us to start to attend to all these outstanding issues which have crystalised the rift between our two organizations.  Skirting issues will not get us anywhere near the path towards reconciliation. 

As a Christian I believe in prayer even if God does not always do what one asks for.  But I believe that even God helps those who help themselves.

Prayer alone cannot resolve issues that we are quite capable of resolving in face to face dialogue as two competing organizations.  God does not expect us to expect Him to do what we can do ourselves.  After all He made us in His image.

There is little evidence that the ruling party has learnt from its own mistakes in government.  We have learnt from theirs and ours.  We have spent our time in opposition well, honing our ideas and skills should we have the opportunity to be the next government of KwaZulu Natal.  We pledge to govern with competence and, as our Conference made it clear last weekend, with integrity, honesty and courage.

Yours sincerely,

Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi MP

Contact:   Jon Cayzer, 084 5557144