ADDRESS BY
PRINCE MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI MP
PRESIDENT OF THE INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
uPhongolo
It is good to be back in uPhongolo as we finally approach a by-election. On Wednesday morning, voting stations will open at Sivule Primary School, Ntshangase Tribal Court, Sibonile Primary School and Sithambi Community Hall. Our voices will finally be heard through the ballot box, and uPhongolo Local Municipality will undergo a fundamental change.
This by-election was meant to take place in March. But just a few days before voting stations were meant to open, the Electoral Commission approached the Electoral Court to postpone the by-election in ward 7. There were allegations that some voters who were registered to vote here, were not actually resident in ward 7. The IEC thus sought more time to verify the voters’ roll, and to allow political parties to check the voters’ roll ourselves.
This is important, because democracy depends on protecting the right of the people to shape their own future. Why should an outsider decide the future of uPhongolo? We must ensure that your voice is respected as the final authority on what is right for you.
It is, in fact, a criminal offense to vote where you don’t live. In June last year the Constitutional Court ruled that the IEC has a responsibility to capture the address of all voters in order to prevent electoral fraud. That ruling didn’t come out of nowhere. It came because time and again the IEC had had to postpone elections because people were being bribed, manipulated or intimidated to vote for a certain party.
When I visited this ward in March, I warned that we would need to be vigilant against just those kinds of shenanigans. I have witnessed the dirty tricks used by our opponents to win elections. They are not content to rely on democracy, because they know that they are losing support. Voters are no longer giving their allegiance to leaders who have failed them. They are moving their support to a party they can trust. And as the IFP gains more and more votes, our opponents are panicking.
But the beauty of democracy is that the will of the people prevails. We saw that with the most recent by-election in Nquthu. Ahead of that by-election, I was asked to predict what the outcome would be. I said, as I always do, that I am not a prophet. But if we could ensure that the elections were free and fair, the IFP would do very well. Because we have the support of the electorate. We have built a partnership of trust.
What happened in Nquthu was amazing. The ANC sent in their top brass, armed with food parcels and empty promises. The Deputy President visited. The National Chairperson visited. The Treasurer General, the Secretary General and Deputy National Chairperson all descended on Nquthu, as well as the whole of the Provincial Cabinet. And on the very day that I was in Nquthu, President Zuma also arrived.
Never before had a by-election attracted the attention of the ANC’s top leadership. But they were determined not to lose Nquthu to the IFP, because if the electorate asked the IFP to lead in Nquthu, the IFP would lead Umzinyathi District as well. We had done well in the Local Government Elections of August 3rd and the only reason we were not yet at the helm was political interference by the ANC.
But the ANC didn’t even trust their own leaders to deliver. They concocted a back-up plan, hiring ten buses to bring in extra voters from as far afield as Durban, to ensure that – when the votes were counted – there would magically be more votes for the ANC. Thanks God, we were vigilant. We expected dirty tricks, because we’ve seen it all before. And everything done in darkness was brought into the light before the election.
The IFP received a copy of the invoice for the ten buses the ANC had hired, and we immediately went to the IEC. The order for the buses was cancelled, and the people of Nquthu got to decide their own future, themselves. When the votes were counted, it was clear that the voice of the people had been respected. The IFP received the lion’s share of the votes in Nquthu. Indeed, we won by some 20 000 votes. It was a landslide victory, simply because the will of the people prevailed.
That is what I want to see happen in uPhongolo. We know that this by-election is important to our opponents. They don’t want to be trounced by the IFP again, and they also know the significance of this by-election. They won by such a narrow margin in 2016 that, if the IFP wins this ward, the balance of power in the whole municipality will shift in our favour.
Zululand will be strengthened as uPhongolo joins Ulundi, Nongoma and Abaqulusi under an IFP leadership. This is good news for uPhongolo. Things are changing, slowly but surely, as the people speak through the ballot box. A leadership of integrity is being strengthened, while those who have failed you are pushed to the curb.
The ANC has allowed itself to become something entirely different from the liberation organisation of the past. It has tolerated corrupt leadership in its mist, and indeed protected corrupt leaders. We have lost respect for what the ANC has become. Promise by broken promise, we have lost faith in a party that barely resembles the liberation movement started by my uncle, Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme. I look at the ANC now, and I wonder how it could have fallen so far from the organisation I once served. The answer, of course, is corruption. Once you open the door to that, the floodgates open to all kinds of evil.
That is why we in the IFP have always fought tooth and nail to keep integrity at the heart of the IFP. We are determined to earn and keep your trust, by being trustworthy. How could I lay my head on my pillow at night if I thought I had done anything less than the best for my country? I am a servant of the people. I am here to serve your needs. If I dare fail you, I will have much to answer for.
Somehow, many of the leaders in our country have lost that innate fear of failing the people we serve. They have seen positions as a means to power and gain, and once they are in, it is very difficult to get them back out. It takes the voice of the electorate to speak truth to power. It takes votes to remove those who are lying to the electorate while lining their own pockets.
I therefore appeal to the electorate of uPhongolo to use your votes on Wednesday. Get to a voting station and cast your ballot. It matters. It matters a lot. This by-election will decide the future of the whole municipality, and the strength of the district. But more than that, even, it will send a clear message to those who are willing to abuse and manipulate your voice. It will say that enough is enough, and the people are now in power. It will say that we want a return to integrity.
I want to thank you for voting for the IFP on August 3rd 2016. The results of the Local Government Elections proved that the IFP is making a comeback. Already the analysts are predicting good results for the IFP in 2019, when South Africa returns to the polls in a national and provincial election. But even before then, the IFP is going to show some remarkable victories. Nquthu was just the beginning.
We learned a valuable lesson from our success in Nquthu. It seems the penny has finally dropped. For years I have emphasised that we must watch our opponents like a hawk because of all the tricks they use to manipulate elections. I have also been saying, again and again, that we ourselves must become more active to mobilise support for the IFP.
We work very hard. But every so often one needs to publicise the work we are doing, even if that means taking a little time away from the urgent and important work to go and visit a community. Whenever I tell our leaders that they need to spend time in this place or in that place, simply talking to people about what the IFP does; our leaders tell me there is just no time. The needs of our people are just too pressing, and our leaders are determined to work 24/7 to ensure that they have done all they can.
But, as I said, sometimes what seems like the most pressing work needs to be placed on hold to do the work of visiting, listening, and being accountable. I was therefore impressed when our party leaders took a collective decision to go to Nquthu. We weren’t going there with great fanfare to deliver a speech and then disappear. Our top leaders volunteered to be party agents, to work at voting stations, and to stay in Nquthu for days and weeks to ensure that the elections were free and fair. The results speak for themselves.
We literally caught our opponents with their hand in the cookie jar. We stopped their corruption. And the elections were free and fair. That alone is reason enough for the IFP to focus more intently on by-elections. Securing a free and fair election was a victory in itself. But the fact that a free and fair election delivered an overwhelming IFP victory, gives us every reason to celebrate. We put in the work, and we got the results.
I remember when I served as Minister of Home Affairs for the first ten years of democracy. Whenever there were elections, I would visit communities to encourage them to register to vote, for voting is the most fundamental right of democracy. So often I was disappointed to find that the IFP tables were poorly manned compared to our opponents. It was as if we believed that mobilising support was enough. The rest we could trust to the system.
But the system has been corrupted. Now we must abide by the wisdom of the abolitionist, Wendell Philips, who said, “Eternal vigilance is the price of liberty.” We need to watch for corruption. We need to root it out and stop it. When our opponents hire buses to bring in voters from outside, we must stop them. When they fill combis with people who don’t live in this ward, we must turn them away. When they bribe people with food parcels, we must tell people the truth; that those food parcels were bought with their own money; money that was earmarked for development projects but has instead been turned into campaign fodder.
If provincial government comes here with food parcels or blankets, accept the gifts, knowing that you paid for them. But don’t be tempted to support the givers, because once the food parcels are gone, they will go too. Once the by-election is over, they will disappear.
Look what happened in Nquthu. Before the by-elections, the Department of Cooperative Governance and Traditional Affairs came bearing gifts of fencing and JoJo tanks for water. These were supposed to be gifts from the ANC. When we challenged them on using state resources to run a political campaign, they denied everything. The MEC said, and I quote, “We are committed to bring non-stop, never ending service delivery to the people of Nquthu.” But guess what? Just days after the people of Nquthu chose the IFP, COGTA began removing the JoJo tanks and taking back the fencing. That’s how they operate. They flood you with gifts when they want your vote, then they disappear taking everything with them. That is not the kind of leadership uPhongolo deserves.
You deserve leaders who will stick around and serve you. People you know. People you trust. You deserve the leadership philosophy of the IFP, where integrity is central and the people genuinely come first.
I realise that there are voters who hold double registration because the boundaries in uPhongolo are not clear. There is nothing wrong with us asking for your vote, because as long as you live here and care about what happens in your community, you have a right to be heard. I therefore urge you to vote on Wednesday. Vote for the party you trust. Vote IFP.
Let us see a resounding victory for the people as the IFP leads.
I thank you.
