Bergville - South Africa is under siege, but the enemy is not coming from outside armed with guns and knives, it is within and its weapons are corruption, deceit, greed, and denial, Inkatha Freedom Party leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi said on Saturday.
"The corruption and state capture we are hearing so much about didn’t come out of the blue. Some people tend to lay all of the blame at the door of former President [Jacob] Zuma," he said at an IFP election rally in Bergville in KwaZulu-Natal.
Corruption was present in the governing African National Congress before Zuma's presidency, and it was clearly still there. The rot was being exposed, but the rot ran deep and it was still being allowed to grow, he said.
"We should have heard by now of senior leaders being expelled, prosecuted, and put behind bars. But instead, there is a deafening silence. All we hear are more promises and more slogans about growing South Africa, when South Africa is clearly in crisis. Eskom is failing. The fuel price is rising. Food is too costly. Unemployment is high, and growth has all but stagnated, creating the threat that the system of social grants may soon collapse.
"There is a clear and present danger. Our country is under siege. But the enemy is not coming from outside, armed with guns and knives. The enemy is within, and its weapons are corruption, deceit, greed, and denial," Buthelezi said.
"We need to fight this in the opposite spirit. We need to come against corruption with truth, transparency, and accountability. It is only when we place leaders we can trust in positions of trust that we will see the tide begin to turn," he said.
Voters should evaluate the parties asking for their vote. "Don’t just go with the one that’s the loudest or has the flashiest campaign. Listen. Ask questions. And consider the past; because the best indicator of whether a party will be honest is whether they have lied to you before. Were you promised jobs and houses? Do you have jobs and houses? Were you promised opportunities, or land, or seed capital?"
The IFP had engaged this campaign with the same slogan it used in 2016 for the local government elections. It was a simple slogan, because the truth was usually simple and plain. The IFP was saying “Trust Us”. "We have given you every reason to trust us," Buthelezi said.
African News Agency/ANA