REMARKS BY
PRINCE MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI MP
PRESIDENT OF THE INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
Ladysmith : 8 December 2018
I am so grateful to have the chance to be with you today, because next week is a critical moment for this community. On Wednesday, voting stations will open at five schools in this ward and you will have the opportunity to cast your vote for a local councillor. A seat on the municipal council has become vacant. Thus, a new councillor must be chosen to represent your voice.
This decision is yours to make. You get to decide who should speak on your behalf in the Alfred Duma Municipality. There are several candidates on the ballot paper, but not all of them represent the right choice.
I have come here today to speak to you about the IFP’s candidate, Mr Tholinhlanhla Dlamini, and to tell you why he is the right choice for leadership.
The IFP is very careful in its selection of candidates for local government. We understand that municipalities are your first point of contact with Government, and that you speak to your municipality through your councillor. So if democracy is going to work, the right councillors must be elected to the municipality.
A councillor is someone with a specific skill set. But skills alone don’t qualify them as a good councillor or the right councillor. A good councillor is someone who listens to the people they serve, who is accountable and available, who attends meetings and delivers on their word. The right councillor is all these things. But they have something extra. They have the backing a party with the right values.
The IFP has always put our values front and centre, because we believe that people are more important than politics. The only reason politics exists, is to serve the needs of the people. Thus people should never be used for political gain. You should never be told to vote for a party in order to get service. You are owed service. It’s part of the governance contract in a democracy.
So any party that wins an election is obligated to deliver services. The difference between parties is that some will work just to meet the minimum requirements. The IFP, on the other hand, exists to serve. It’s our entire purpose for existing. We are passionate about meeting your needs, not because we have to, but because that’s our definition of success.
In municipalities where the IFP leads, we measure our success by how many homes receive clean running water, electricity and sanitation, by how well the roads and community centres are maintained, by how many development projects are running, by how many skills programmes the youth are enrolled in, by how well the transport service runs, by how well schools are functioning and how safe families are from crime.
These are the things that matter to us. In fact, they matter so much that the IFP has built our reputation around service. We don’t tell you to vote for us on the basis of promises. We invite you to partner with us on the basis of a relationship of trust. The IFP is a party of integrity. It is very important to us that we maintain your trust. So we will do everything in our power to work hard, work clean and work well, on your behalf.
This is not just something we promise to do. It’s something we’ve been doing already for 43 years. The IFP has a proven track-record of clean and efficient local governance. We know how to achieve a lot with a little, and we know how to manage large resources so that nothing is wasted, mismanaged or stolen. We understand how local government works. We also know how to avoid the pitfalls that many other parties run into.
The biggest pitfall is not a lack of resources or a lack of capacity. It’s corruption. You can have highly qualified people managing a big budget, but still not see service delivery. Because unless you have absolute integrity and strict checks and balances by trustworthy leaders, corruption is likely to drain away the money in a municipal budget.
The same is true of every level of government. Tragically, South Africa has seen huge losses due to theft, mismanagement and waste of resources by government. At municipal level, that translates directly into problems for you. When there is a bit of corruption going on in the municipality, schools fall into disrepair, street lights aren’t fixed, local businesses struggle, and families find it difficult to get support.
But where there is integrity, you can sense the health of a community. Things are working, growing and improving. Businesses are getting stronger, children are learning, jobs are being created, entrepreneurship is thriving, the vulnerable are cared for and everything is moving towards success.
In any community, things are either moving forwards or backwards. Nothing ever stands still. If work is stalled on a community project, for instance, because money has gone missing from the municipal budget, your hopes aren’t placed on hold. They disappear. Because you need an income now. You need seed capital now. You need assistance today, not sometime in the future.
A hungry mouth can’t wait to be fed. It will cry and cry until it gets sustenance. But why should people be made to cry? Your representatives and your leaders should be listening to you when you talk. They should hear you the first time, and act on what you say. The IFP believes this, and we are committed to giving communities that kind of leader.
Mr Tholinhlanhla Dlamini is that kind of leader. He has proven himself capable of community leadership and has shown the right character for this critical work. The IFP is proud to have him as part of our team. We are proud to back him as our municipal candidate.
We believe that he is able to do more for this community than has been done in the past. He has new ideas and a fresh perspective. He is not just plodding along at the pace set by our opponents, who seem to think that just enough is good enough. He is backed by a party that believes in more – more development, more opportunities, more partnership.
We want to see this community thrive. And we’re going to achieve it through our own efforts, because that is why the IFP exists. So I ask you to join hands with us and bring something new to this community. New and better. The IFP is ready to serve.
On Wednesday morning, voting stations will open at Cwembe Combined Primary School, Mangcengeza High School, Matiwaneskop Combined Primary School, Thembela High School, and Jononoskop Primary School. There are more than 4 000 voters in this community, so these schools should be busy places.
I urge you to get there early and cast your vote for the IFP. If you can’t get there early, just get there, whatever time you can. But make sure that your voice is heard on Wednesday. Don’t miss this chance.
We are creating something new. It’s something only honest leaders can achieve, in partnership with the people. Join us on this journey. Together, we will secure a good result.
I thank you.
