ADDRESS BY
PRINCE MANGOSUTHU BUTHELEZI MP
PRESIDENT OF THE INKATHA FREEDOM PARTY
ULUNDI CONSTITUENCY HELD AT EZIMFABENI
The Master of Ceremonies Ibamba-Bukhosi; His Worship our Mayor, Councillor WM Ntshangase; Deputy Mayor; Speaker; Chairperson of the Ulundi Constituency; Izinduna; Councillors of the Ulundi Local Municipality and all the members of this community.
This morning, I had the privilege of opening a community hall in Ezimfabeni in this area. It was built by the Ulundi Local Municipality to provide the community with a place to gather, so that issues of governance can be discussed. I encouraged the community to use Kwa Mpanza Hall as a centre of information, dialogue, development and training. The Municipality has constructed more than a building. It has created potential and hope.
To me, that is the job of local government. Your municipality is tasked with providing services and infrastructure. It is mandated by legislation to meet specific needs, such as the provision of sanitation, the running of clinics, and the maintenance of roads. Your local municipality works hand in hand with the Zululand District Municipality, which is mandated to assist through support and resources. Through that partnership, local government is able to provide water, housing and electricity.
But all of these services are just a means to an end, because the key task of local government is improving lives. Thus everything your municipality does must carry value on both an economic and a social level. It makes sense to build a community hall, so that people can access their leaders, get involved in governance, and participate in development projects. This is not just about a physical structure to hold meetings out of the sun and rain. It’s about mobilising opportunities and releasing potential.
I am privileged to lead a party that understands local government. The IFP has been serving communities for four decades, administering resources, meeting needs and developing infrastructure. We’ve been building houses and classrooms and businesses for years, both under apartheid and democracy. Our long experience has taught us how to govern well, how to do a lot with very little, and how important it is to maintain integrity in leadership positions.
Experience has shaped the IFP. Our values and principles have been tested, and have proven to be good. Our emphasis on self-help and self-reliance has empowered millions of people. And our honest leadership has become a lighthouse in a stormy sea of political corruption. The IFP has grown into the party you can trust. Your voice is safe in the IFP. It will be respected and heard. It will be honoured in the way we perform local governance.
It is therefore no surprise that people support the IFP. We’ve had a good and strong partnership for many years. But I have never taken your support for granted. I am always grateful when the electorate supports the IFP. Whenever you cast your vote, and your cross goes next to the IFP, you make a real difference. Not just for our party, but for our partnership. And it’s that partnership that serves the needs of your family. It’s a partnership that grows Ulundi.
Ulundi is my own hometown. It’s good to see the IFP in leadership here. I think it says a lot about the people’s support when a party is at the helm in its leader’s hometown. I don’t want to make disparaging remarks about our opponents. But the fact is that tomorrow I’ll be visiting Nkandla, to thank the people for voting IFP. The IFP runs Nkandla, just like we run Ulundi, because the people have voted for the party they trust. This function was requested by you through your elected leaders to celebrate our victory in a Constituency in which the IFP won all the wards.
Here in Ulundi, the IFP has governed from day one. Thus Ulundi enjoys a degree of stability that is difficult to find in other places. Ulundi is one of the top performing municipalities, with consistently good audit reports from the Auditor General. We can be proud of our municipality. We can be proud of the strong partnership that backs good governance; it’s a partnership between you and your representatives, and it starts at the ballot box.
I am grateful that this function was requested by the leadership of the IFP as it has given me the opportunity to come to you to thank you for your voter support that you gave me and the Party in August last year.
I therefore want to thank you for voting IFP. It has been more than a year since the Local Government Elections, and we have had a chance to prove that you made the right decision. I wanted to take a moment, though, to focus on why Ulundi is thriving. It is undoubtedly because Ulundi has good leadership. But the reason it has good leadership, is because of you. Your votes have made a difference. You have strengthened good governance. You have saved me from being a laughing stock of our political opponents and other critics. They always refer to Ulundi Constituency derisively as Buthelezi’s backyard.
I am pleased to see that the good work we are doing here is being replicated in municipalities across KwaZulu Natal, as support for the IFP grows. We have seen some very positive results from by-elections and there are many indications that the IFP may do well in 2019. I pray that that will be the case. Because I know how much our country needs a leadership of integrity. We need the values of the IFP to infuse the present politics of South Africa, so that the tide can be turned on disunity and corruption. I have been unhappy for quite a few years because IFP leaders and members have not heeded my message to set up branches. Had my message been taken seriously, we would have done even better than we did on the 3rd of August 2016, during the local government elections. But I want to say on record that I am however quite proud of the manner in which branches were set up, and are being set up in this Constituency. But we are aware of some of you who set up bogus branches which is the surest way of destroying this Party.
It is essential that we refocus the attention of government away from politics and power-games, towards the needs of our people. No matter who wins the chair-throwing contest at political meetings, the reality remains that South Africa is in crisis. Our economy is stagnant and food prices are increasing. Jobs are scarce and poverty is widespread. There is no excuse for our country’s leaders to be focussed on politics. Their every waking moment should be consumed with saving South Africa.
It will take a changed leadership to rescue our country. It will take a leadership of integrity. The best solution is to empower a party that can be trusted; a party that has proved its worth. As we approach a national and provincial election, I ask you to speak about these things in your homes and in your schools. Talk to your neighbours and friends about the future. Not just about what you want, but about how we can achieve it.
The IFP is ready. We are willing and able. We can lead the rescue mission that saves South Africa. But we need to do it on the mandate of South Africans, and that mandate must come through elections. I therefore ask you to mobilise support in the months ahead,. 2019 is not that far away. Get involved in a branch. Start a new branch. Think of a way to grow the IFP, because you have a contribution to make to the success of the future. Please expose those who set up bogus branches for they will ensure the destruction of our Party.
You have seen what can be done when the people vote IFP. Let’s make Ulundi the birthplace of hope for the whole of South Africa.
I thank you for your support. You are the heart of the IFP.
