The 2004 General Elections are less than a fortnight away. Once more, every effort will have to be made to ensure that all our people have the possibility freely to express their will as they choose our provincial and national legislatures and governments. Above all, this means that all our people everywhere should be guaranteed freedom from all violence and intimidation aimed at forcing them to vote for or against any of the parties contesting the elections.
The Electoral Law under which the elections will be held is very clear and specific on this matter. It makes it a criminal offence to resort to these means and methods to influence the outcome of the elections. In addition, all the contending parties have voluntarily signed a Code of Conduct binding them to conduct themselves in a way that both respects the law and helps further to entrench democracy in our country.
We also hold these elections on the eve of the celebration of our First Decade of Liberation. Both symbolically and otherwise, we have a shared duty to bid farewell to this First Decade and welcome the Second, in a manner that confirms that democracy in our country is alive and well.
This Second Decade of Liberation will also confront our country with the serious challenge to surpass the Millennium Development Goals set by the United Nations with regard to the central question of the eradication of poverty and the elimination of all its manifestations.
Our movement has firmly committed itself to the achievement of these objectives. In addition, we have pronounced ourselves unequivocally in favour of building a people's contract to take our country forward towards the realisation of these goals. We are determined to build a powerful united people's movement to create jobs and fight poverty.
More than at any other time, this necessitates that government in all spheres, the local, provincial and national, must enjoy the highest level of legitimacy among the people. These masses must accept that government truly derives its authority from the people, having been freely elected by them, and not imposed on them through resort to violence and intimidation. Only such a government can lead the country and secure the partnership of the people in the people's contract we have spoken of.
Necessarily and inevitably, our country will also have to sustain the effort to find its rightful place within the international community of nations, effectively responding to the dynamic process of globalisation. Again this demands that especially the government should enjoy unquestioned legitimacy in the eyes of the peoples of the world, having been freely chosen by the people in an open and transparent democratic process.
There are some in our country and other parts of the world who still refuse to accept that as Africans we can build a successful, stable and peaceful non-racial, non-sexist and prosperous democracy. These are continuously hard at work to project as negative an image of our country as they can. The victory they seek is the entrenchment of the notion globally that ours is nothing more than yet another example of their negative stereotype of an African country.
This emphasises the challenge we face to ensure that we do nothing that would provide examples that these "Afro-pessimists" would enthusiastically grab to substantiate their racist prejudices against everything African. We also know that these negative elements would work to use this "proof" to demoralise our people, the rest of our continent and peoples throughout the world who are determined to work with us to achieve the goal of a better life for all throughout Africa and the rest of the developing world.
Once again, this underlines the importance we must attach to the holding of free and fair elections, to deny those who want us to fail the possibility to advance their agenda at the expense of the most fundamental interests of our people and others in Africa and the rest of the world who share a material interest in our success as we work together to translate the vision contained in our Constitution into reality.
It is for all these important reasons that we have continued to insist that everything must be done to ensure that the 2004 General Elections should be truly free and fair. To attain this goal, we have, among other things, insisted that our movement, the ANC, will take firm action against any of our members who does anything that undermines the achievement of this objective.
Our security forces have also been fully mobilised to ensure that they are able to act speedily and effectively against anybody who tries to compromise the effort to ensure that all our people are able to exercise their democratic right to elect a government of their choice, without let or hindrance. In this regard, the Police Service has made the categorical statement that it will not negotiate with anybody who violates the letter and spirit of the law, but will apprehend any offender to ensure full respect for the law.
Despite everything we have said, there are clear indications that a small minority in our country is still determined to resort to force and intimidation to undermine the democratic process and oblige the people to vote for other than the parties of their choice, driven by fear of violence and death.
Perhaps not surprisingly, the highest incidence of violence and intimidation we have experienced so far is in the province of KwaZulu-Natal. The media continues to insist that it is here that we will see the most intense and tense contest for the support of the people. The suggestion is made that this intense contest is and will be essentially between the ANC and the IFP.
The reality is that it is in this province, KwaZulu-Natal, that our movement has experienced the greatest incidence of violence and intimidation against its members and supporters. This has included the assassination of our members and instances of determined attempts to disrupt our public meetings and campaigns.
In terms of the government Presidential Imbizo process, we have visited seven of our provinces. In all instances, with the exception of KwaZulu-Natal, these izimbizo have proceeded without any incident suggesting the possibility of, or likely to lead to violence.
But when we visited Tugela Ferry at Msinga, men suddenly appeared at the venue of our Imbizo carrying "traditional weapons". These had absolutely no place in a peaceful process of interaction between the people and the President of the Republic. Understanding this, none of the people who came to the Imbizo carried weapons of any kind. The conclusion was inevitable and correct that the armed minority group that appeared at Tugela Ferry came to terrorise the people to limit their interaction with the President of the Republic.
Since we joined the election campaign, directly, we have experienced two incidents, which clearly did not contribute and could not have contributed to the creation of a climate conducive to the holding of free and fair elections.
In these two incidents, one in the rural areas near Pietermaritzburg, IFP members gathered at a point where, after prior arrangement, we were going to interact with the local community. In this instance, fortunately the SAPS intervened and moved the IFP group some distance away from where we were to have our interaction. This was to ensure that there would be no conflict between the supporters of the ANC and the IFP.
The second incident occurred at Mangosuthu Technikon in Durban. In this instance, members of the IFP once more mounted a demonstration at the exact spot where again by prior arrangement, we were to address the students studying at this institution of higher learning.
The IFP members tried to block the road leading to the area where we would address a rally. Again the SAPS intervened and moved these members off this road to allow unobstructed access to the rally. Once more, this helped to ensure that conflict was avoided, as might have erupted if our convoy had had to force its way through the group of IFP members who had deliberately positioned themselves across an access road.
It was at this point that I said publicly that I would speak to the Minister of Safety and Security to ensure that the police were properly instructed to act firmly and immediately against anybody, regardless of political affiliation, who engaged in activities likely to violate the law with regard to the process of campaigning for votes.
Again the intervention of the SAPS and the tolerance of the ANC supporters ensured that there was no violent conflict, which could easily have happened.
But more seriously some violence occurred perhaps a fortnight later, after the IFP had held a rally at Folweni in KZN. After this rally had concluded, an ANC supporter was killed allegedly by IFP members who travelled from the rally to a residential area nearby, to act against people who had not attended the rally.
On the same day, a man and his wife, again supporters of the ANC, were killed in cold blood at their home at Ixopo in the KZN Midlands. It had previously been reported that this was one of the areas where there was high tension between members of the ANC and the IFP.
Acting on a similar report concerning the area of Shobashobane again in KZN, leaders of the ANC and the IFP jointly visited this area to urge everybody to respect the law and avoid all activities that might result in violence and intimidation. This was necessitated in particular by the fact that on Christmas Day in 1995, members of the IFP had carried out a terrible massacre in this area, killing many supporters of the ANC.
Preceding this visit to Shobashobane, the Minister of Safety and Security, Charles Nqakula, had led an ANC campaign group to Ulundi to interact with the residents in this part of our country, which has variously been described as a stronghold of the IFP.
Once again, as in the KZN Midlands, at Mangosuthu Technikon, and earlier at Tongaat, IFP members mounted a demonstration presumably to counter the presence of the ANC campaigners. Again the SAPS intervened, having deployed in considerable numbers, to ensure that no conflict ensued between the supporters of the ANC and the IFP.
We can, of course, site other instances of political violence in KZN, some of them resulting in the death of members and supporters of the ANC. Fortunately, both the SAPS and the IEC have announced that they are convinced that political violence in KZN will not reach too high a level, compromising the possibility to hold free and fair elections in this province, and indeed in Gauteng, where other instances of ill advised actions by supporters of the IFP have taken place.
The cause for concern about KZN in particular derives both from these various incidents and then history of political violence in this area. In its Report, the TRC said that it had identified "the IFP as the primary non-state perpetrator of gross human rights abuse in South Africa from the latter 1980s through to 1994", when thousands of people were killed.
It went on to say about the IFP that "At a time when it portrayed itself nationally and abroad as a liberation movement, the IFP, through the intervention of its senior members, was receiving direct financial and logistical assistance from the highest echelons of the apartheid state's security apparatus. Evidence before the Commission indicates that Inkatha's opposition to the South African government's policies had changed to covert collaboration by the second half of the 1980s, and the two had united against a common enemy, the UDF/ANC and their affiliates."
It is now the openly stated position of the IFP that it considers the ANC as its principal opponent in the contest for the votes of the people of KZN, the one province in our country where it hopes to win power. To make doubly certain that it achieves this result, it has entered into an alliance with the DA in the so-called Coalition for Change, the right wing formation we discussed in the last edition of ANC TODAY.
The violent incidents we have spoken of arouse the fear that the what the TRC reported on concerning the earlier violence against "the UDF/ANC and their affiliates" could occur again, to intimidate the people into ensuring an IFP/DA victory in the one province they believe they could govern together as the Coalition for Change.
Interestingly, in the Mail and Guardian interview we cited in our last Letter, the President of the IFP said: "We and the DA share values and principles. Several of our conferences in the past were addressed by Helen Suzman; (Frederick) van Zyl Slabbert addressed joint meetings. It's not as if the coalition (for change) is just opportunistic."
We hope that these ideological allies of long standing, the IFP and the DA, which have nor combined in a formal united front, will now do everything they can to discourage all their shared supporters from trying to secure an electoral victory for their Coalition through the use of violence and intimidation.
At the same time, the ANC will also have to work hard and consistently to ensure that its own members and supporters do not engage in any activity likely to undermine a free and fair outcome of the elections especially in KZN. This includes those instances where provocative actions might have been deliberately undertaken to incite violent conflict.
All participants in the elections must not help to create the situation where after the elections, the losers will be given the possibility to claim that they lost because the elections were not free and fair, even though such violence as might have occurred would have been initiated by the losers.
Our country will continue to rely on the law-enforcement authorities strictly, firmly and expeditiously to ensure respect for the law by everybody, regardless of political affiliation. The masses of our people must be guaranteed the right freely to express their will, without let or hindrance by anybody.
