'SA can prosper like Europe'
2004-03-27 22:56
Fochville, North West - There is no reason why a country with South Africa's resources and potential should not reach levels of stability and prosperity seen in European countries or countries of the Pacific Rim, Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi told supporters in Fochville on Saturday.
"Countries of the Pacific Rim were underdeveloped countries just a few decades ago, but they pulled themselves up by the strings of their boots and, with hard work and sacrifices, walked the hard and uphill path towards prosperity," Buthelezi said.
"I want to lead South Africa on the same path. I am ready to play my part if the South African people are willing to play theirs on April 14."
Buthelezi said that as leader of the KwaZulu-Natal homeland he had prioritised programmes which would ensure that everyone could live off the land.
"The collapse of the social fibre of rural communities, which has been announced by the dreadful policy of our government to undermine traditional leadership, spells out disaster for urban areas as well, as it forces people to migrate from rural to urban areas, to join into an urban proletariat, and to the spreading of our squatter camps in an economy which cannot accommodate them."
Buthelezi said he was concerned how the African National Congress had not understood the importance of rural areas in the overall formula of the success of South Africa.
- SAPA