31st ANNUAL GENERAL CONFERENCE of the INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
ON THE THEME “GROWING THE IFP TO STRENGTHEN ITS MORAL LEADERSHIP TO DEFEND DEMOCRACY”

Ulundi: October 6-8, 2006

RESOLUTIONS

The Annual General Conference of the Inkatha Freedom Party met in Ulundi on October 6-8, 2006 and unanimously adopted the following:

RESOLUTION 1:

To unequivocally state its view that the socio-economic and political state of the nation, after more than a decade of rule by the ANC alliance, is perilous with respect to wide-ranging and well-known factors based on substantiated analyses which now urgently require the intervention of:

1. Effective, competent and accountable leadership rooted in moral principles and with a common purpose emerging from the ranks of a broad range of South Africans capable of harnessing and directing a peaceful and democratic revolution throughout all spheres of government and civil society in the best interests of all of the country’s citizens;
2. People-centred and managed policies and programmes devoid of dangerous ideological cant and freed from the hegemony and brutal manipulation of the ANC alliance which has continuously shown its intolerance to opposition of any kind;
3. Courageous combatants willing to speak out, for example, against the current maladministration in all levels of Government, lack of political accountability, corruption and all manner of criminal behaviour, the obscene and rapid accumulation of great wealth by the politically-connected via in some instances the sale of State assets and the gross misdirection and manipulation of the worthy original concept of Black Economic Empowerment, the indolence and arrogance of many so-called “public servants”, the ongoing suffering of millions who are dying of myriad preventable diseases and the need for them to tirelessly work to ease the plight of many more millions who endure the hardships and indignity of poverty and unemployment;
4. International forces, both political and social, capable of evaluating the need to lend their authority and all manner of support to forces correctly calling for drastic change within the country before the current crisis becomes uncontrollable and incalculable damage is further wreaked upon the land and its people;

We therefore:

Commit the Inkatha Freedom Party to the attainment of these and other noble objectives in an effort to ensure and entrench meaningful political, social and economic security in a non-violent South Africa.

RESOLUTION 2:

To support leadership of the Party in its quest to:

1. Reorganize and revitalise existing Party structures and encourage new branch membership and support bases so as to empower and upgrade cadres in all Provinces in order to effectively provide the calibre of leadership required to face and offer visible alternatives to the current political and social challenges and crises destabilizing the country and disempowering its citizens;
2. Democratically elect new leadership as and when required by our IFP Constitution and to continually focus the Party on its core mandates as articulated in its founding principles and in all manner of party policies.

We therefore:

Wholeheartedly congratulate all newly-elected members of our reconstituted National Council and offer them our solidarity in our combined, multi-strategy, quest to build a new South Africa in which decency, the rule of law and democratic principles are respected as paramount.

RESOLUTION 3:

Noting the Party’s less than satisfactory performance in the March 2006 Local Government elections and, in particular, the loss of a number of councils in KwaZulu Natal;

Conference resolves to:

1. Congratulate all those constituencies and districts which succeeded in retaining or gaining power in local and district municipalities and to also applaud all councillors on their election or re-election;
2. Note with dismay that in most municipalities in which the party performed poorly, party structures ranged from weak or non-existent while the converse is equally true – that strong party structures invariably resulted in strong electoral performances;
3. Therefore ensure in all constituencies and districts that party structures are the foundation from which the party is able to successfully contest for and thereby secure governmental power;
4. Re-affirm that IFP councillors are not free agents and that IFP councillors do not operate autonomously in municipal institutions and that they are subject to oversight by party structures but to affirm likewise that a balance needs to be struck in allowing councillors to do their work free from unnecessary interference;
5. Call upon all councillors to put the interests of the communities they serve first, by working diligently, honestly and in consultation with their communities and that the party’s 2006 Councillor Pledge is respected at all times;
6. Require of all councillors in their individual behaviour as well as their behaviour as local government functionaries (such as members of caucuses, of executive committees and as office bearers) that they comply with party requirements governing their behaviour, and in particular though not exclusively, with directives emanating from (a) the Political Oversight Committee and (b) the Local Government Directorate;
7. Call on all councillors to avoid doing anything which damages the image of the party and conversely, to do everything in their power to advance the interests of the party, especially in light of the impending 2009 national and provincial elections.

RESOLUTION 4:

Resolves to earnestly warn all citizens, irrespective of current party-political allegiances, of the peril of complacence in the face of the clear danger of South Africa rapidly descending into a one-party State and instructs leadership to consistently expose all instances of what is now being described as outright “political thuggery”.

Conference deplores:

1. The continued intolerance of the ANC alliance to any form of democratic opposition whether organized or in the form of constructive criticism;
2. The use of intimidation and other forms of anti-democratic behaviour against perceived political opponents by certain leaderships and their supporters within the ANC alliance;
3. Ongoing attempts to destabilize the leadership of the IFP and to use the treachery of floor-crossing to steal the people’s votes;
4. Legislative assaults intended to diminish the power and authority of traditional leaderships throughout the land;
5. Brazen moves by Government to dis-empower and interfere with the power and authority of the judiciary and tamper with the independence of Chapter 9 institutions contained in the Constitution of the Republic including the Independent Communications Authority of South Africa;
6. All manner of attempts to centralize State power in all spheres including the right of schools and their governing bodies to appoint the teaching staffs of their first choice;
7. The obvious and deliberate weakening of the critical oversight role of the National Assembly and the National Council of Provinces through rules and procedures designed to inhibit effective debate;
8. The elevation of the Executive far beyond that of Members of Parliament whose dwindling role is now appallingly evident and whose ability to function effectively appears to be increasingly negligible with ruling party members in Parliament now acting as mere voting fodder for the unquestioned execution of the legislative mandates required by the Executive/ANC leadership.
9. Moves within the ANC alliance to alter and/or remove the continuing legislative authority of Provinces which constitute a direct assault on Chapter 6 of the Constitution of the Republic and an obvious attempt to direct debate towards the redefinition of the country’s overall form of state.

Therefore Conference:

Calls on all patriots to be vigilant and to resist the constant and deliberate erosion of our Constitutional order including many of the agreements reached prior to 1994 during the CODESA/Multi-Party Convention, some of which were translated immediately into law and others were included in the subsequent interim Constitution and our existing Constitution thereafter and which are now subject to increasing amendment or repeal and;

Notes that it should not ever be forgotten and should serve as a warning that the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation, signed by both Mr F W de Klerk and Mr Nelson Mandela in 1994, was immediately dishonoured and no attempt whatsoever was made to implement its stated intention to resolve outstanding constitutional issues and that the consequences of this betrayal may yet haunt South Africa.

RESOLUTION 5:

The Inkatha Freedom Party has, from its inception, advocated federalism, provinces, pluralism and enterprise-driven economic policies and programmes with a specific social dimension designed to assist the poorest of the poor.
These form the bedrock of our political principles.

During the political negotiations at the World Trade Centre at Kempton Park (CODESA), the IFP fought for and attained for South Africa (in spite of fierce resistance from the ANC alliance) a central place in the Constitution for the now 9 Provinces of the Republic. In so doing the IFP ensured that the country would at least have a quasi-federal system of government as opposed to the highly centrist form favoured by the ANC alliance.

The IFP did so at great political cost and only entered the electoral race one week before the historical April 27, 1994 elections after the agreement regarding the inclusion of provinces had been made and assurances given in the Agreement for Peace and Reconciliation (subsequently dishonoured by both former President F W de Klerk and President Nelson Mandela) that all outstanding constitutional issues would thereafter be resolved.

Conference now:

1. Calls on all democrats to defend the federal nature of the Constitution of the Republic and to heed the dangers of an emerging ANC alliance debate as to the future of the country’s provinces;
2. Warns of the possible outcomes and consequences of this debate, including significant changes to the Constitution of the Republic, the demise of our present quasi-federal State and the removal of all current provincial powers and functions including health, safety and security, education and transport;
3. Signals its belief that this may well be the beginning of moves within the ANC alliance to finally eradicate provinces or strip them of all significant powers to ensure the long-held intention of the ANC alliance to centralise all political power in the Republic in a unitary State;
4. Urges national democratic resistance against all and every attempt to diminish participatory democracy currently operational in all provinces which accommodate regional, ethnic, cultural and linguistic differences and which, crucially, provide checks and balances over national government.

RESOLUTION 6:

Conference agrees with the views already expressed by all right-thinking and outraged South Africans that the current attempt to strip Cape Town Mayor, Ms Helen Zille, of her power to govern the Mother City and its environs, dangerously threatens democracy not only in that specific sphere of government but should also serve as a warning to government structures and voters throughout South Africa.

The IFP is, however, also alarmed at the silence on this matter emanating from certain well-known and previously highly profiled and acclaimed voices representing various organs of national and international moral authority (in churches, governments abroad, academia and so on) which helped to bring the ANC alliance to power as the so-called “sole and authentic voice of the people of South Africa”.

We question why they now appear to be strangely quiet when a major assault on our democratic order is being openly orchestrated against the wishes of voters who freely demonstrated their democratic choices and did not give the ANC and its allies an outright majority to rule Cape Town.

We therefore add the voice of the IFP to the calls of ordinary citizens for sanity to prevail and endorse fervent requests to the leadership of the ANC alliance to instruct the ANC MEC for Local Government in the Western Cape, Mr Richard Dyanti, to desist from his stated objective of changing the existing mayoral system of governance which will, in essence, remove Mayor Zille and her current multi-party committee from power

We furthermore:

1. Place on record that the IFP will support all efforts to test the Constitutionality of this proposed ruthless power grab as it sets a precedent, strikes at the core of all principles of democratic governance and crucially exposes thinking and strategies within the body politic of the ANC alliance which appear to approve of manipulating the levers of power for party political advantage;
2. Acknowledge that the consequences for democracy of this thinking within the ANC alliance (which appears to be supported at the highest levels) are dire and must be resisted.

RESOLUTION 7:

Conference congratulates its President, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, on his election as chairman of the KwaZulu Natal House of Traditional Leaders and on the overwhelming support shown by Amakhosi for his ongoing leadership.

It is noted however that the leadership of the ANC alliance has time and again stated and acted on its intention to circumscribe the powers and functions of traditional leaderships throughout South Africa and has made every effort to bend their authority to the will of the ANC alliance. The IFP is therefore grateful that its leader has again been placed in a position of trust to continue to oppose these overt attempts to smash the legitimacy of traditional leaders and to further his long-standing efforts to protect and promote our cherished heritage.

It is therefore resolved to:

Respectfully encourage the House of Traditional Leaders to work together in actively promoting an understanding of the critical role they must continue to play in the lives of many millions of South Africans who need their wisdom and guidance amidst growing suffering caused by poverty, ignorance, disease, moral decay and political mismanagement;

Support Amakhosi in their efforts and initiatives to bring messages of hope and practical means of assistance to our communities as they have long done.

RESOLUTION 8:

The IFP continues to reiterate that the criminal justice system throughout South Africa is failing its citizens and such failure is, in itself, now a growing threat to our fledgling democracy.

Government’s collective inability to effectively identify, combat, isolate and successfully prosecute and incarcerate huge numbers of criminals is a national disgrace. It is clear that proper political and professional leadership is lacking.

It is deplorable and totally unacceptable that tens of thousands of rapists, murderers, paedophiles, vehicle hijackers, drug dealers and thieves of all kinds (both sophisticated and unsophisticated) and national and international criminal syndicates act each in their own way every hour of every day throughout South Africa — most often with impunity.

It is tragic that in our poverty-stricken townships the victims of apartheid and of white racist brutality now face the constant horror of acts of black criminal brutality.

All manner of appalling criminal activity is being currently perpetrated by a broad cross section of South Africans and foreigners and it is clear that Government is not winning the war against crime and should stop trying to pretend that it is.

We salute the bravery, hard work and sacrifice of the majority of our law enforcement officers imbued with honesty and integrity who most often operate under appalling conditions and for little reward and who also suffer the indignity and collective smear of the treachery of certain of their fellow officers revealed to be corrupt and unworthy of the uniforms they wear.

Notwithstanding the diligence and commitment of these honourable men and women, it is clear that many officers and officials throughout the criminal justice system – as it is presently constituted – often lack through no fault of their own the requisite skills necessary to withstand and effectively combat the sheer weight of the forces of evil in our society.

Conference notes:

1. It has once again been made evident in the latest appalling crime statistics revealed by Government that the highly centralized system of policing much favoured by the ANC alliance is an abject failure and should be decentralized as a matter of urgency with new and competent leadership bolstered where necessary by requests for international assistance and training sought to alleviate obvious skills shortages (including DNA analysis and all manner of specialist detective investigation techniques and intelligence requirements relating but not inclusive to gangs, international syndicates and the effective collation of all manner of evidence required by our courts);
2. The need for the structural readjustment of the entire criminal justice system and the promotion of efficiency and accountability;
   Unhealthy, unfit, semi-literate police officers untrained in detective work and forensics must be identified and where necessary removed from their posts until they have been assisted to improve their skills and physical ability to perform their duties;
3. Communities must at all times report indolent, arrogant and corrupt officials to relevant complaints bodies for investigation and use the media to also highlight proof of their concerns;
4. Regular performance audits on all personnel must be undertaken and acted upon;
5. Continuing efforts by Government to curtail the independence of the judiciary must be exposed and thwarted;
6. That public pressure and mass action is critical to ensuring that the current state of affairs is not perpetuated and that visible and tireless policing becomes the norm in all communities;
7. The need for citizens to actively and constructively cooperate with the police serving in their communities and report all criminal activity known or observed;
8. That the glamorization of crime in our townships (often epitomized in song and on film) must be condemned and citizens must accept the truth of the saying that “He who profits from crime, commits it”. The purchase of stolen goods must be seen for what it is: a crime;
9. That role models are needed throughout our communities to consistently expose the horrors and dangers of criminal behaviour, drug trafficking and get-rich-quick scams;
10. That political leadership daily condemns each and every act of violence and criminal activity wherever it occurs and be seen assisting victims of crime.

We therefore urge citizens to demand:

1. Mandatory, regular and accurate police crime statistics which will withstand independent analysis and which will quickly identify trends in various areas so as to allow communities to be more vigilant;
2. An acknowledgement and identification of all crime “hot spots” to be regularly reported to all communities;
3. Official surveys and analyses of victims of crimes and jurisprudence as to the rights of victims of crime;
4. Tax rebates for the private security measures many South Africans have been forced to acquire in attempts to provide for the safety of their families and communities;
5. Accountability from police service leadership who must now be deployed in positions of high authority on the basis on performance;
6. A moratorium on all pardons and early release programmes for all prisoners convicted of certain categories of crimes to be stipulated in new legislation to be enacted by Parliament;
7. That MPs and MPLs take a tougher stance on the actions and performance of Executives, both national and provincial, in relation to all issues pertaining to Government responses to crime.

RESOLUTION 9:

Conference recognizes that unemployment remains the ticking time bomb on which our economy now sits. Our labour markets must be reformed and government must liberalise those forces in our economy which are actively hindering the growth of small business development. The current levels of obscene wealth being accumulated in the hands of a few and extreme poverty being suffered by the majority cannot be allowed to perpetuate.

Conference notes government’s renewed objective to achieve a 7%+ annual economic growth required for African countries by the International Monetary Fund to reach the target of halving poverty by 2015 through the Accelerated and Shared Growth Initiative for South Africa (ASGISA) and;

This initiative acknowledges our volatile currency, deficiencies in leadership and state capacity, over-regulation in the economy, an institutionalized lack of competition and many and various persistent burdens on small and medium enterprises as obstacles to achieving such levels on economic growth.

It is therefore resolved to urge government::

1. To translate the new growth diagnostics of ASGISA into a more coherent and responsive set of economic policies tailored for the immediate and long-term needs of South Africa;
2. To strike a more creative balance between public and private endeavours in pursuing higher economic growth; and
3. To use the golden opportunity afforded by South Africa’s hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup to streamline these dual endeavours to materialize high growth and fast-track development and job creation.

RESOLUTION 10:

Noting the emergence of a new strain of drug-resistant TB, known as XDR TB, government’s failure to cope effectively with TB or HIV-AIDS in the past and government’s lack of preparedness to cope with the latest form of TB, Conference resolves:

1. To encourage government to:

• Decentralise authority and accountability to provincial governments;
• Require government or the SA National Aids Council (SANAC) as a matter of urgency to apply to the World Health Organisation’s Green
• Light Committee for help in obtaining free medication to treat persons with the infection, namely caprimycin and cyclosterine;
• Require urgent restructuring of SANAC so that it becomes independent and transparent;
• Approach SANAC to con-ordinate a network of NGO’s to help government deal with the latest strain of TB;
• Make more funds available for TB NGO’s;
• Re-evaluate labour laws dealing with testing of employees for TB;
• Require all hospitals to designate special wards for patients with extremely resistant TB and introduce quarantine and intense infection control provisions for persons with the illness.

2. To encourage members to:

• Conduct active campaigns to test for TB in all health facilities and in the work place;
• Inform people that the current form of TB does not respond to previously used medication such as isoniazid, rifampicin, ciprofloxacin, ethambutol, streptomycin or kanamycin;
• Educate people to understand that the best ways to avoid contracting extremely drug resistant TB are to encourage persons with conventional TB to take their medicines diligently and to encourage sick persons to cough into handkerchiefs or tissues;
• Requests that masks be made freely available to persons at Post Offices, pension outlets, colleges and schools.

In the meantime the IFP will urge all branches to:

• Appoint HIV – AIDS and TB coordinators;
• Require these persons to attend Ward Committee meetings and to make relevant inputs to local councils;
• Educate their constituencies as to all of the above
• Advise all members to encourage family members to be tested for TB;
• Make members aware that the test required to confirm the latest form of TB is a laboratory sputum culture;
• Document circumstances in which they are aware of unfair discrimination or poor treatment of patients in health facilities;
• Bring these factual issues to the attention of IFP leadership in writing;
• Use their collective voices to bring these cases to the attention of the media.

RESOLUTION 11:

Noting that the government’s strategy to combat HIV – AIDS is failing, resulting in at least 900 persons dying from AIDS and more than 1 000 persons becoming newly-infected with HIV each day.

Conference again continues to advocate the IFP’s strategy to cope with the AIDS pandemic as regards persons affected, prevention of infection and support for vulnerable children as follows:

1. Those affected should be treated as if they have any other infectious disease with special secrecy provisions relating to HIV removed;
2. Testing and counselling should be provided widely at hospital outpatients, clinics, schools and colleges;
3. Pre-marital testing for HIV must become mandatory;
4. Nevirapine must be made freely available at all clinics and hospitals for all mothers giving birth;
5. Treatment for HIV must be streamlined and made more widely available through actively pursuing partnerships with international donor organizations and decentralizing authority to provincial governments and health districts;
6. The many laws that obstruct access by vulnerable children and child-headed households to grants and housing must be changed;
7. Doctors treating HIV and TB must be encouraged to work with traditional healers;
8. Good nutrition must be promoted for better health but not as a substitute for anti-retrovirals;
9. The most important right for persons with HIV – AIDS should be the right to non-discrimination;
10. All leaders must speak with one voice about the cause of HIV – AIDS being a virus and point out that HIV is now treatable as any other disease.
    It is entirely controllable by following a sensible lifestyle. This means practicing abstention pre-marriage and having unprotected sex only with a partner whose HIV status is known;
11. Greater attention must be given to education about STI’s (sexually transmitted infections) other than HIV and to actively treat them, as this would reduce the incidence of HIV by more than half;
12. Call on government to change the medicines currently used to treat gonorrhoea in clinics and hospitals due to the high rate of resistance to these medicines.

Conference furthermore calls on IFP leadership to continue to lobby to transform the policies of the ANC alliance on HIV – AIDS and to take steps to curb the spread of HIV -AIDS and TB.

Members are urged to:

1. Appoint HIV – AIDS coordinators in every branch;
2. Ensure that these HIV – AIDS coordinators are active in all Ward committees as health representatives and that they make relevant inputs into the Integrated Development Plans (IDPs) of local councils;
3. Submit details of all IFP HIV – AIDS coordinators to IFP Head Office;
4. Identify persons for training in Community Health Worker training programmes offered by government and NGOs;
5. Work with youth members if IFP branches in all wards to produce educational dramas based on information available from the IFP Head Offices;
6. Work together with the Women’s Brigade to assist every member of every family to tend a vegetable garden so as to provide essential food elements to families;
7. Compile lists of persons (name, ID, address contact details) who are unable to access grants for vulnerable children or unable to access homes for child-headed households and submit these to Head Office (Durban or Ulundi);
8. Draft Private Member’s legislation to deal with problems affecting vulnerable children and child-headed households;
9. Work with teams comprising government, NGOs, private sector and donors to provide mobile units to reach deep rural areas and assist with all aspects of STI’s, HIV – AIDS and TB prevention and care;
10. Have all leaders follow the example of the President of the IFP by speaking openly and HIV – AIDS and TB whenever possible and encourage persons to abstain, be tested, seek treatment and support.

RESOLUTION 12:

Conference applauds the indispensable leadership of its President, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, and thanks him for the hope and wisdom he gives to his Party and the people of South Africa in his quest to first and foremost imbue in all our citizens the noble cause of self-help and self-reliance, inner peace and the security and well-being which comes from lives led with dignity, moral integrity and purpose leading to goodwill and charity towards to all persons.

We wish him strength as he leads us to continue to struggle for the cause of the true political, social and economic liberation of South Africa: from the threat of an emerging one-party state and from the emerging turbulent consequences of rampant poverty, ignorance and disease which ever-increasingly blight our land and it citizens.

We offer him, as always, our gratitude, unconditional respect and support.

RESOLUTION 13:

The scourge of Africa has been the death and destruction that has been caused by combinations of ethnic nationalism, ethnic rivalries and absurd beliefs and posturing that certain cultures are superior to others.

Countless lives have been lost, communities shattered and nations rendered corrupt and bankrupt by populist voices exhorting calls for ethnic cohesion and primacy for its own sake and/or as cynical ploys to gain political power and access to state resources for their own ends and those of their cohorts.

Conference thanks the President for his continuous warnings of the dangers of ethnic entrepreneurialism. Whilst the IFP has always believed that it is acceptable for all South Africans to be proud of and cherish, promote and protect their constituent cultures, we unequivocally state, once again, that we are all first and foremost South Africans and that each cultural identity is of equal worth.

Conference therefore notes:

• Evidence of certain persons and groups attempting to use the ethnic origin of Mr JG Zuma as a means to rally support and sympathy relating to his recent plight and warns of the extreme danger in so doing;
• It is unacceptable that there may be a belief in certain quarters that politics can in future be organised and contested in South Africa along ethnic lines; and therefore;
• Calls on all members to be vigilant in relation to allegations that Mr Zuma was prosecuted and, by inference, persecuted because he is Zulu.