Speaker, Mr President, with deft sleight of hand, you redirected our attention away from the profound problems of South Africa, ignoring all the mistakes of the past and baselessly claiming tomorrow will be better. We are not going to solve our problems with smoke and mirrors, nor by rewriting the past.
Ignoring the contribution of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi and the IFP in our country's liberation is pure hypocrisy. Facts are facts, Msholozi. You cannot change the fact that Buthelezi was Chief Minister of KwaZulu at the behest of Tambo and Luthuli, or the fact that he refused nominal independence which rendered apartheid's plan untenable.
Inkatha was home to the disenfranchised majority when the ANC was in exile. Inkatha erected Dr Pixley ka Isaka Seme's tombstone in 1982. It was Buthelezi who delivered Luthuli's funeral oration at the request of the ANC and Luthuli's family.
It was Buthelezi who spoke on behalf of South Africa's oppressed when Mama Nokukhanye Luthuli asked him to accompany her to Maseru to receive her husband's posthumous award from the Organisation of African Unity, OAU.
Buthelezi travelled to Lusaka to thank President Kaunda for giving sanctuary to you, our exiles, and to Dar es Salaam to thank President Nyerere.
Inkatha refused to abandon the founding principles of the liberation movement when the ANC embraced violence and 20 000 black lives were lost in the ANC's people's war.
Buthelezi brought all of us to the negotiation table when he rejected bilateral negotiations. [Interjections.]
On 2 February 1990 President de Klerk announced that Buthelezi had convinced him to release Mandela. Mr Mandela thanked Inkatha in his first rally for working tirelessly for the unbanning of political parties and the release of political prisoners.
In the first decade of democracy, Mr Buthelezi was Acting President 22 times. President Mbeki offered him the Deputy Presidency. Listen to what happened. [Interjections.] I am happy Minister Ndebele is here in front of me. Mr President, you torpedoed that in order to take the position yourself.
On 12 June 2008 President Mbeki said in Parliament, and I quote:
I have made it a point to listen carefully to everything Buthelezi says. This is Mbeki, not me.
Constantly I have marvelled at his wisdom and his deep concern to sustain a value system that is critical to the survival of our democracy. Shenge, many thanks for everything you have done for all of us.
In this same House President Motlanthe, who is here, called Buthelezi "an icon".
In 2002 Mandela admitted, and I quote:
We have used all ammunition to destroy him but we failed. He is still there. He is a formidable survivor. We cannot ignore him.
Yet you ignore him, Mr President, just as you did on 8 January in Mangaung where, in his presence, you lost the nerve to voice what was contained in the ANC's full statement.
Can you honestly say that you do not know that Buthelezi and Tambo worked together until 1979? Can you honestly stand up here and tell South Africa that you do not know that? In writing, the ANC claims that Buthelezi failed to keep our people focused on the struggle for a united and nonracial South Africa. What nonsense!
Inkatha worked hand in hand with South Africans right here on this soil. We were at the coalface of the struggle, facing the beast of apartheid head- on. We fought for freedom on all fronts: freedom from dependency, freedom from hunger, ignorance and poverty. Inkatha kept the hope of liberation alive. [Interjections.]
You cannot change facts. You can try to obliterate the IFP from the record, but as Dr John Dube said, "Where there was once a pool, water will collect again." I thank you. [Applause.]