29th ANNUAL CONFERENCE of the INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
ON THE THEME
“UNITY AND STRENGTH FOR THE IFP’S NEW AND GREATER MISSION”

Ulundi: July 23-25, 2004

RESOLUTIONS

The Annual General Conference of the Inkatha Freedom Party met in Ulundi on this 25^th day of July and unanimously adopted the following

RESOLUTION 1:

The IFp’S Role as A Moral Opposition

Conference:

Noting that, in spite of this year’s electoral setback, history has now cast the IFP a much greater role of being a moral and constructive opposition to hold the ANC accountable and ensure the functioning of an otherwise ailing democracy,

Resolves:

1.   to call on the IFP to fulfil its new and greater mission to aspire to be the representative of all the people of South Africa;

2.   to mandate the IFP to rise to the challenge of its new role of an all-inclusive and credible opposition party that can provide the essential checks-and -balances a healthy democracy needs;

3.   to urge the IFP to speak out against the ANC leadership when they makes mistakes and to voice the concerns of the ANC constituency whose interests are also our interests, and to do so without fear or bias;

4.   to calls on the IFP to be mindful that even though circumstance may prompt the IFP to criticize the ANC leadership to hold them accountable, the IFP is not antagonist or separate from the ANC constituency and the majority of the people of South Africa;

5.   to support the ANC leadership when they deserve credit and to criticise them when they do not respect the needs and aspirations of their own constituency, as well as ours;

6.   to support the proposal of the President of the IFP for an  conference to define the role of the opposition comprising both the ruling and opposition parties;

7.   to call on the ANC to recognise and respect the role of the opposition as a necessary factor for the well functioning of our democracy and the ANC’s own good governance;

8.   calls on the ANC to realize that good governance requires effective and focused opposition and affirms that today's opposition forces may become tomorrow's ruling majority through the democratic process;

9.   to call upon the ANC leadership not to disregard proposals and ideas merely because they come from the outside of its ruling elite, from Parliament or from the opposition;

10.  calls on Parliament, including the ANC’s own MPs, to become more proactive and develop the capacity, courage and self confidence to criticise the President when warranted and direct the President in his policies rather than vice versa.

threats to our democracy

Noting with concern the consequences for multi-party democracy of the abnormal majority enjoyed by the ruling party; 

1.          expresses concern that such a massive majority is likely to lead to abuses of power;

2.         deplores the present majority is result of several factors including widespread electoral fraud and a possibility for people to vote where they were not registered;

3.         expresses concern that such an abnormal majority leads to poor service delivery due to a lack of accountability and nepotism, such as the appointment of top civil servants on party lines of nepotism;

4.         commits the IFP to consistently monitor all ANC policy decisions, and hold the ANC accountable for all decisions that are taken to serve the sectional interest of increasing power for the ANC;

5.          condemns the centralisation of power that is currently entrenching all power in ANC ranks;

6.         calls on the people of South Africa to mobilise to protect our Constitution, which is no longer the entrenched and untouchable supreme law of the land, as the ANC leadership can change it at will, even against the wants of the majority of South Africans, as it did when it allowed floor crossing;

7.         condemns the blurring and the collapse of the lines which separate party and state and that the ruling-party is increasingly using the state as an instrument of the ANC;

      8.         notes the lack of independence of Parliament which has shown no autonomy from the Executive;

     9.         deplores the lack of provincial autonomy in which Premiers are now becoming answerable to the President who has ensured that all provinces adhere to ANC mandates;

     10.       calls upon all political parties to recognize that our democracy needs to be safeguarded in the recognition that there is an urgent need to debate the current state of affairs of our democracy, for its development and future thereof in South Africa.   

 ON Unity

Mindful that the IFP was formed in 1975 on the founding principle of internal unity,

Heeds the call of the President of the IFP of the need for unity and strength to be established in all spheres and structures of the IFP for the purpose of fulfilling our new role and duty as a moral opposition;

1.         to calls on all the members of the IFP to adhere to the principles and provisions of the IFP Constitution respecting differences of roles of office bearers and ensuring that members are treated equally and without discrimination;

2.         to call on the National Council to revive the Complaint Resolution Committee to resolve internal conflicts and to hold workshops to promote Party discipline, while considering establishing a think-tank to formulate strategies to promote unity;

3.         to encourage a Party life which adheres to the IFP Constitution, including the regular communication between branches, constituencies and other Party levels;

4.         to mandate the IFP leadership to listen to members at the grassroots level and address their concerns timeously and to isolate and to discard arrogant and power drunk leaders;

5.         to call on the IFP to organise self-help, sporting, education, social and other activities, while promoting multi-culturalism in the Party and tolerance across the cultural divides;

6.         to call on all members of the IFP who have grievances to seek internal remedies without attacking the Party in public;

7.         to call on our Party structures, leaders and supporters never to engage again in divisive faction fighting and internal dissent, resolving any dispute by enhancing the democratic method and internal elections, as happened during this Conference;

8.         that our Party will have to change the manner in which we do things to be united in vision, dedication and committed to succeed;

9.         that each person within the ranks of the IFP has a role to play in order for us attain our desired unity;

10.      to strengthen our unification through comradeship in our upcoming battle in the local government elections;

11.       to call on the whole IFP to realize unity must be the driving force behind election campaigning as we strive for victory.

ON Regeneration and renewal

Recognises that we have been called upon by our constituencies to re-evaluate our performance in all respects and spheres of the life of the IFP;

Resolves: 

1.   to applaud and commend the President of the IFP for having taken the positive and ground breaking initiative of promoting and spearheading the renewal and regeneration in the Party on the strength of his statement that we shall not fear change but the only thing to fear is fear itself;

2.   to heed to the call and example of the IFP President and call on all IFP’s structures not to fear change;

3.   to endorse, ratify and approve the amendments to the IFP Constitution proposed by the National Council to establish the position of an elected Secretary General in lieu of the General Secretary of Administration;

4.   to praise the IFP President for having led and spearheaded the process of change and renewal;

5.   to mandate the IFP President to continue the process of change and renewal ensuring that this Conference is indeed the beginning rather that the end of such process;

6.   to ratify and approve the amendment of the IFP Constitution to pave the way to the reform of our National Council which will ensure that the governing body of our Party is more directly representative of our grassroots constituency and has the closest contact with our people on the ground;

7.   to support the proposed reform to make the National Council smaller to allow for quicker and more streamlined decision-making;

8.    to call upon the Party to keep alive the spirit of this conference and the wave of regeneration and renewal;

9.    to ensure that it may infuse our local Government Election Campaign;

10.  to call on all members to conduct activities with sensitivity and without undisciplined emotions ensuring that  the renewal process promotes greater internal discipline;

11.  to call on the Party to hold meetings on a regular basis at all levels, from branch to National Council  meetings, and ensure there is greater interaction between National Council members, parliamentarians, provinces and grassroots, promoting the notion of “face to face with the voters”;

12.  to call on the Party to hold its Conferences in other provinces to broaden the appeal of the Party across the nation.

  leadership development and Party Outreach

Recognising that in order for the IFP to fully embrace its new mission as a moral and constructive opposition, it is imperative that leadership development and political party outreach be part of the process of positive change,

1.   the role of leadership be re-claimed and taken seriously in the IFP in respect of the crucial issues that are currently facing our country;

2.   that the combination of political outreach and leadership excellence will hold no meaning unless a clear demonstration of genuine concern and empathy for the plight of the person on the ground is expressed, ensuring that all IFP leaders are and act as servants of the people;  

3.   that the Leadership Development Institute needs to be revitalised for the empowerment and training of all IFP leaders;

4.  to call on the present generation of young people to carry the responsibility of bringing about a peaceful revolution and they can only succeed if they are empowered accordingly with the skills required to fulfil their mission;

5.   to urge IFP leaders to become the voice carrying the message of our new mission to the masses of people in South Africa to articulate  our case so that the IFP will become the choice of a new generation, as much as it was that of the previous generation, twenty-nine years ago;

6.   to call upon all IFP leaders to display great qualities of leadership in all that we pursue and leave no stone unturned in winning back our people;

7.   to call upon the Party to hold mini conferences in all regions of South Africa;

8.   to call on the IFP to train its leaders vigorously to make them good party operatives and ensure their capacity in opposition politics is maximised;

9.   to call on National Council to communicate more widely the IFP philosophy, vision and initiatives while enabling these to emerge from the grassroots in a bottom-up approach;

10. to call on the grassroots to invite IFP leaders and office bearers providing them with platforms on which they can launch opposition politics;

11. to call on the IFP to deploy leaders who come from the relevant areas and for such leaders to serve the relevant communities regularly, visiting people and participating in their activities;

12. to call on all IFP structures to intensify media contacts and to seek positive publicity and appoint, when possible, publicity secretaries, ensuring that such activities are conducted at the lower party levels, without being obstructed by Head Office;

13.  to call on the Party to increase its cultural accountability of its top leadership to the grassroots, dismissing leaders who are not effective or knowledgeable, while instilling a culture of working together, mutual respect and loyalty to the Party;

14.  to call on the Party to maintain a permanent fundraising activity that must not be monopolised by Head Office or the top leadership level, but must be empowered at branch and constituency levels to promote local activities;

15. to call on the Party to maintain a database of skilled and competent people which can be accessed by prospective employers or used by the Party for leadership purposes;

16.   to make the IFP the choice of a new generation.

Noting that if South Africa continues on its present sluggish trajectory of growth the economy could shed another million jobs in the next five years;

Mindful that growth needs to be increased to at least six percent plus, a similar pace to other emerging markets, in order to cut through the structural conditions that produce large-scale poverty;

Concerned that at present Black Economic Empowerment is only benefiting an elite few;

1.   to mandate the IFP to fill the government’s public policy void with our own New Real Development Initiative (NRDI) that addresses the seminal public policy priorities of economic growth and job creation, HIV/Aids, crime, corruption and poverty;

2.   to call for the privatization of the all the parastatals, including the public utilities and the outsourcing of government functions must be accelerated;

3.   to call on government to make South Africa` more economically competitive by reducing inflation and the taxation burden to international levels, and removing all unnecessary regulatory barriers, non tariff trade barriers and exchange controls;

4.   to call for BEE to become more broad-based and transparent;

5.   to urge government to brand South Africa as an international high quality food producer and promote the Green Revolution;

6.   to urge government to promote sustainable developmental farming, by providing people with tractors, fertilizers and service points and agricultural extension officers;

7.   that Small and Medium Sized Enterprises should be provided with assistance to access capital and that government should work with micro financial institutions and to restructure the Umsobomvu Youth Fund to help set up sustainable credit guarantee schemes to provide for skills training and transference;

8.   to call for a restructured Umsobomvu Youth Fund to liaises with all political parties;

9.   to call upon the IFP to establish advisory offices to assist people with access to venture capital funds and to formulate business plans, while soliciting government to make information more readily available;

10.  to call upon the government to spread tender opportunities more equitably balancing value-for-money with assistance to small and medium sized businesses;

11. to call upon government to develop an economic growth strategy based upon each province’s natural resources, specific social economic requirements, climate, topography and recognising that each province is unique and has a different Human Development Index (HDI);

12.  to urge government to win back foreign investors lost during the apartheid era campaign for sanctions and disinvestment;

13. to call upon government to deal effectively with illegal immigrants to avoid the draining of our scarce resources;

14.  to call on government to link training with job opportunities and to promote skill development centres;

15  to urge the country to identify, publicise and celebrate black and white South Africans who have become successful entrepreneurs and make them the new ‘struggle hero’s’ of the second decade of democracy. 

COMBATING CRIME

Recognising that crime is often fuelled by high levels of unemployment and endemic levels of poverty and inequality

1.         to call upon government to provide more better trained, better paid, better supervised and better equipped police;

2.         to call for a more equitable distribution of police services and resources across the territory and between urban and rural areas or affluent and poor regions;

3.         to call upon communities to support and assist the police participating in crime prevention and community policing forums;

4.         to call upon the Department of Sport, which must be revamped, to ensure that all youth receive the benefits of sports and recreation as an alternative tool to the lures of crime;

5.         to call for massive programmes of civic education in schools, communities and workplaces to shape upstanding citizens to be implemented;

6.         to call upon IFP led municipalities to extend the role of community policing forums;

7.         calls upon municipalities to prioritise assistance, rehabilitation of street children to break the cycle of crime at its base roots;

8.         to call for prevention programmes in schools and youth organisations, such as drug’s education to be implemented;

9.         to urge the criminal justice system to be reformed to give alternative sentences that promote restorative justice and criminal rehabilitation to be given to offenders who have only committed minor sentences.

CORRUPTION

Noting that corruption is endemic in South African public life and that many of the ruling-party leaders have been involved in scandals, most infamously the multi-million arms deal, and have received lenient treatment from the ANC which conveys the message to the general public that the government is not tough on corruption and tough on the causes of corruption. 

Calls for:

1.   government to prioritise its anti-corruption strategy at the departments most prone to corruption;

2.   government and public opinion alike to recognize then whenever there is a lack of values of money corruption exists, as in the case of the so-called match box houses built at exorbitant prices;

3.   warns that floor crossing promotes a culture of corruption as it rewards defectors with bribes, positions or personal benefits;

4.   the role of external and internal auditing functions to monitor more closely more likely and most likely areas of corrupt activity;

5.   the capacity of the forensic auditing division in the office of the Auditor General to be increased;

6.   people to be inculcated with the awareness that corruption steals from the poorest of the poor;

7.   IFP leaders to monitor and report corruption within IFP led administrations;

8.   For any IFP leader involved in corruption to resign at once.

RESOLUTION 9:

POVERTY

Conference:

Observing that setting our people free from the grinding poverty in which millions South Africans live is not only a moral imperative, it is also vital to the long term stability and prosperity of our nation;

that according to a World Bank definition “most often poverty is a situation people want to escape”, including hunger, lack of shelter, lack of access to medical care, education and not having a job;

1.   the IFP to fill the government’s public policy void with our own New Real Development Initiative;

2.   the government to deal with poverty by means of real development, rather than  the empty slogans of the present RDP;

3.   the IFP to establish a development desk to assist our members with development;

4.  IFP branches to become engines of development identifying and differentiating projects according to communities and their respective needs and skills;

5.   IFP branches to become vehicles in which several poverty alleviation programmes can be delivered, ranging from training to skills development, financial management, marketing and distribution of social benefits;

6.  government to prioritise the implementation of a back-to-basics food security programme and a food production strategy;

7.   a “New  Deal” for people in the rural areas, which ensures that land is fully optimised for agricultural activity by supplying farming implements, such as tractors;

8.   the delivery capacity of municipalities to be strengthened to ensure that they receive the necessary support and know-how to improve their Integrated Development Plans;

9.   the provision of training and assistance in rural and urban communities in forming co-operatives to enhance productivity and to create job opportunities;

10. the endogenous cycle of community development by means of assisted productive activities, local markets and an effective government programme to provide incentives to identify foreign and domestic investments in rural areas to be jump started.

  HIV/AIDS

Noting that HIV/Aids is decimating our population, dislocating families and communities, and remains the single largest public policy challenge of our time:

1.   praises Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi for the leadership he has given on HIV/Aids at a great personal cost;

2.   calls upon all South Africans to emulate the example of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi to break down the stigma of HIV/Aids and notions of ‘them’ and ‘us’;

3.   calls upon government to expedite its programme to extend antiretroviral drugs and test sites in all health facilities, major workplaces, clinics and further education institutions;

4.   calls for education based on all available personal choices, including abstinence, fidelity  and use condoms;

5.   calls upon government to make available substantive resources to assist children orphaned by Aids and child-headed households and other children and promote  fostering, adoption and adult supervised hostels.

  LOCAL GOVERNMENT ELECTIONS

Noting that the IFP must convincingly win the Local Government Elections in 2005 if is to regain power in KwaZulu-Natal in 2009 and that the ANC will be determined to tighten its grip over the province and is likely to deploy unprecedented resources and leaders to secure this objective.

1.         that the IFP 2005 Local Government Election campaign has commenced;

2.         that IFP councillors should be called to account at branch annual general meetings this year with the purpose of eliminating from the candidate’s list for 2005 councillors who have performed badly;

3.         that IFP led municipalities must maximise their efforts to implement the Party’s 2000 Charter for Development;

4.         that IFP led municipalities develop cogent programmes to deliver on the five issues of HIV/Aids, crime, economic growth and job creation, poverty and corruption;

5.         that IFP led municipalities cooperate to provide IFP branded and seamless service delivery across the province.

  THE LEADERSHIP OF PRINCE MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI

Noting the President of the IFP, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi provides a quality of consistent, focused, moral and visionary leadership that is without equal in public life in South Africa; 

Praises Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi for taking the initiative to promote the renewal and regeneration of the Party;

1.   The Party to promote the process of renewal and regeneration under the leadership of the President of the IFP;

And, 

1.   Expresses our heartfelt gratitude and confidence in the leadership of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi;

2.   Wishes Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi God’s richest blessings for a long and happy life;  

3.   deplores the disrespectful manner in which Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi was treated by President Mbeki;

4.   calls on South Africa to recognize the immense contribution of leadership which Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi has provided in ten year tenure in the central government, especially in respect of issues such as HIV/AIDS, employment generation, poverty alleviation and economic growth;

5.   calls on opinion-makers to stop being concerned about the so called ‘’Buthelezi succession’’, for in all probability Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi will be leading the moral opposition into the 2009 elections.