- "Our people are dying and suffering by the millions
because of HIV/Aids, crime, unemployment, poverty and the effects of widespread
corruption. All this requires action not ideology. The ANC remains bent
on speaking ideology while our people are dying and suffering.
-
- We have seen an example of this ANC's propensity to dish
our ideology when action is required. This very week in Parliament when
President Mbeki speaking in the Presidentís Budget Vote declared
that "we are a government of the left." Whilst not indicating
when he came to that position, Mr Mbeki quoted a British left of centre
commentator, Will Hutton, who said that people in Britain - and everywhere
- are becoming American neo-liberals. Developing Hutton's paradigm of the
left versus right conservatism, Mr Mbeki claimed that acceptance of the
neo-liberal agenda - the so-called Washington Consensus - "would shatter
the dreams of the millions of our people for a better life."
I could not resist a wry smile. But it was only a small smile, because
after ten years of ANC rule, the poor majority is becoming poorer, as a
new enriched elite emerges. The ruling party, by its own targets, is not
making sufficient progress towards constructing a 'people-centred society.'
"As I have said repeatedly, my biggest fear is that the old merciless
politics of race will be overlaid with the equally hard and merciless new
politics of class. One of the primary tasks of the IFP will be to act as
the voice of the poor and marginalised in our society. Part of the renewal
of the IFP will be a fundamental policy review and the development of a
crisp policy agenda that draws the poor and marginalized into the mainstream
of economic activity and opportunity. Not by dividing the cake, as the
left would urge us to do, but by making the cake bigger. I donít
know if this is neo-liberal or the Third Way, but I am sure it is the right
thing to do!
"We need action not ideology. Our people are dying and suffering.
This is not a football match where we can talk about left and right wings,
centre right or centre left. We are not in a University Campus or amongst
students discussing theoretical issues of ideology politics. The South
African people, especially those who voted for the ANC want action in respect
of HIV/Aids, unemployment, crime, poverty and corruption. They have no
interest in seeing their President playing ideology or picking up on the
Americans. This is when the IFP must speak up and become the voice of
reason, not only on its behalf but on behalf of the ANC constituency as
well.
We are a moral opposition and our strength is backed by the force of our
argument and our capacity to speak sense, when others seem to be lost.
In so doing what we say carries the weight of the needs and aspirations
of the majority of South Africans, and can overpower even those who have
concentrated in their hands the totality of power in our country. The biggest
singular challenge for any political party that aspires to govern South
Africa is to build a counterweight to the ruling-party that coaguates around
a common set of principles and beliefs, to which people from every walk
of life will freely subscribe. This is the mission I have set for the IFP
as I have travelled around KwaZulu-Natal over the last month meeting our
supporters."
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