NATIONAL COUNCIL MEETING 22nd & 23rd August ’98
At its meeting in Ulundi on August 22/23, 1998 the National Council of the Inkatha Freedom Party resolved:
RESOLUTION 1
That the Party is concerned that its call for national consensus with regard to important national initiatives and reconciliation between itself and the ANC is being deliberately and mischievously misconstrued;
that voters must be under no illusion that the Party has clear political objectives and philosophies which differ considerably from those of the ANC and other political Parties;
that the Party, in putting South Africa first, seeks peace and reconciliation between all Parties and a common quest to jointly support specific government policies and programmes which will constructively drive socio-economic and human development throughout the Republic;
that it will lead by example in calling for all Parties to desist from scoring divisive Party political points on the backs of an electorate which is racked with poverty and still reeling from the aftermath of apartheid and the effects of the struggle within the struggle for liberation;
that the Party will continue to vigilantly pursue the articulation of Party policies and will highlight and expose, whenever possible, the deficiencies it perceives in Government policy and practice and the objectives of our political opponents which we oppose;
that the pursuit of an IFP electoral victory and our quest for federalism and pluralism is inextricably linked to our commitment to non-violence and the normalisation of South African society;
that this then is the context in which the public should locate the IFP as a distinct party, quite separate from all others, and as a Party of patriots committed to national healing and prosperity.
RESOLUTION 2
To express, yet again, its disquiet with regard to the Truth and Reconciliation Commission and places before the people of South Africa the inescapable fact that the President of the IFP, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, has now been proved right in his often voiced prediction that the TRC would draw to a close, as it is now doing, without having made any serious or substantial commitment to investigate the deaths of hundreds of IFP leaders and thousands of its members and supporters;
that the TRC has through its actions undeniably shown bias against the IFP and in so doing has turned its back on the suffering of our members and supporters which we unreservedly condemn.
RESOLUTION 3
To draw attention to the fact that IFP leaders in KwaZulu Natal have been intimidated by supporters of the ANC while canvassing in the Greater Durban Area and in Clermont in particular;
that the Party intends to bring these incidents to the attention of the leadership of the ANC at national level and to request giving effect to previous agreements which must now be enforced to ensure freedom of political activity;
furthermore, to express surprise that the senior leadership of the ANC in KwaZulu Natal personally led a march against the Attorney-General of KwaZulu Natal. Not only do we regard this as inappropriate but that it points towards a widely held perception that the ANC is hostile towards a truly independent system of justice in the country.
RESOLUTION 4
To fully support the initiative of the ANC/IFP Government of National Unity to pursue a non-military and negotiated solution to the present crisis in the Democratic Republic of Congo;
to ask for the prayers of all South Africans that African souls be spared from further conflagration and that democratic African solutions be found for an African problem.
RESOLUTION 5
To offer our heartfelt condolences to the family of Mr Bhekinkosi Ngubane, IFP member, religious leader, member of the Pongola Taxi Association, Chairman of a school governing body, and much loved husband and father, who was brutally murdered in the bedroom of his home, allegedly by members of the SANDF on August 15, 1998 at Godlwayo, near Pongola;
to thank the police in the area for their swift arrest of four ex-MK soldiers of the SANDF and to record our outright condemnation of the SANDF command authority responsible for the operation which led to the alleged brutal torture and subsequent death of Mr Ngubane;
to request all relevant bodies, including the Human Rights Commission, to investigate this death and the actions of the command structures of the SANDF in the area, including the precise reasons for the SANDF exercise.
RESOLUTION 6
That the relentless campaign of the ANC to deprive traditional communities of control of their institutions and their land has culminated in the Court Case of Kgosi Lucas Mangope. Blinded by the obsession of centralised government, the ANC government of North West Province has claimed the right to act for and on behalf of a tribe without their consent.
In all the centuries of traditional government in Africa, no Kgosi or Inkosi has ever been charged or convicted of theft of his own land.
The IFP pledges itself to ensure that in a democratic and free South Africa, traditional communities will constitute a permanent feature of civil society with the full right to participate in development and upliftment of their lives.
