PRESIDENTIAL SPEECH DELIVERED AT THE FEDERAL COUNCIL

SATURDAY, 27 FEBRUARY 2016

It gives me great pleasure to welcome you to the new year, 2016, since we parted peacefully on 06 December 2015.

We have to take up cudgels and make sure that we stand up united to change the face of politics in the country so that there should be responsibility and accountability in word and deed.

The National Executive Committee has done all they could to set systems in place regarding the forth coming Local Government Elections. The shenanigans of the Independent Electoral Commission in the North West that we have long complained about have been exposed by the highest court in the country, the Constitutional Court. The IEC because of their ingrained inclination to cutting corners was further exposed by the Tlokwe independent candidates when they approached the Electoral Court complaining that the IEC had not given effect to the order of the Con Court to furnish residential addresses of all voters!

This is a wake-up call to the IEC that even with the coming elections that they should provide residential addresses of voters. We in the UCDP will even call for the abolition of ferrying voters to the voting stations on voting day because there are days asset aside for special votes where the incapacitated are afforded chance to vote alone; there is again no need to transport voters to their voting stations as voting stations are set as close as possible to one another.

Our members have to know that no one is a member of the party unless they have paid their membership fee. No branch/ward may belong to a region or district unless its members have paid their dues and the branch has affiliated to the region/district and to the provincial office. No province may call itself an affiliate of the UCDP until they have paid to Head Office!

It is unacceptable that people stay at home in between elections and only come alive during election year. It is equally unprocedural, uncalled for and unbecoming that individual members want to attend the Federal Council out of the ambit of the province or the region.

In the forth-coming elections candidates will be nominated at their wards as far as possible. No-one will approach leadership to negotiate to be placed on the list or ward.

The deputy President, our electoral officer, will elaborate further on this matter and all other issues that have a bearing on elections.

I shall be remiss if I cannot refer to wanton destruction of property that we saw this week. Our own University, the University of Bophuthatswana, has been turned into ruins. I say the University of Bophuthatswana because we built it with our donations. Except for the taxes we paid when it was built we, who were employed at the time had to raise funds. Some advanced live stock or crops for sale. We feel beaten below the belt.

This wanton destruction resulted from position mongering by political upstarts and lack of communication between students, management of the university and government! Minister Blade Nzimande, the minster of Higher Education, has been conspicuous by his silence and absence. In fact his unavailability was noticed even from the days of #Fees must fall! He is an absent minister.

Our people have to learn that being destructive in debate should not be equated to being vocal and talking to power.

Let me congratulate the youth who under Psalmist Nche have formed a what’s app group. They share ideas about the party, Congratulations guys.

The NEC will visit regions or Districts to check on whether there are members on the ground. On such visits we shall ask the attendants if they know the councilors allocated to their area and if the councilors do serve them as expected.

The National Chair and the Secretariat will address the matter as we proceed.

To this end I may whet your appetite as follows:

“Please be informed that the UCDP is doing well in Limpopo. We have now covered all Limpopo Districts”

I wonder if we can have a similar message from other provinces. The ball is in your court, Bagaetsho.

Every member of the party matters. Every member of the public does matter.

I again extend my hand of friendship to all those who used to share the shade of the tree with us. As you talk to them advise them that they cannot and shall not be members of the party by remote control.

I must put it clearly that the Amended Constitution of the UCDP which we adopted in December 2013 dictates that we should hold a Mid-term congress at about 30 months after the National Congress where we shall assess the rout we have travelled at the time. This time will come in the midst of the Local Government campaign but we shall cross the bridge when we get to it. I mention this so that you are reminded and know that the current constitution is modernized.

As I conclude, the principles and policies of our party are still the same. They are Christian principles. They are against discrimination on grounds of national, tribal or ethnic grounds or as the case may be. A man is a man; a woman is a woman and we distinguish clearly between genders.

Our call remains the same we must LOVE, RESPECT, SERVE, CONSULT WITH AND BE TOLERANT TO ALL MANKIND.

I thank you