The IFP has always known that democracy can only work if the power to govern is truly brought closer to the people. For years throughout negotiations shaping a liberated South Africa, and for years since our political enfranchisement, the IFP has called for federalism as the best and only way of securing genuine liberation. If we fail to rise up to the challenge of the local government elections taking place in a couple of months' time, the cause of federalism will fall flat, never to rise again. This is a last-chance opportunity to get power to our provinces and power to our people. The local government elections must breathe life into our ongoing struggle for federalism, so that it will not die without having properly lived.
Federalism means bringing government closer to the people.
It means that central government must respect the cultural diversity of our people. It means that we have the opportunity to say what we need, and the hope of getting it. A centralised government will continue to send one kind of solution down the conveyor belt to fulfil the differing needs of diverse communities. Federalism asks the community what the specific problem is and tailor-makes a solution that works. If democracy is the government of the people by the people, it makes no sense to toss out federalism at this early stage in our delicate transition.