‘Responsibility to change the country’s circumstances’
She said the political turmoil that has characterised South Africa over the past 29 years has left them all feeling dispirited.
“There is much work to be done to ensure that 2023 is a better year, after the many calamities the country faced in 2022.”
These are the words of Inkatha Freedom Party’s Women’s Brigade national chairperson, Princess Phumzile Buthelezi.
Buthelezi said collectively, they have a mammoth responsibility to change the circumstances that future generations can be proud of.
She said this while delivering her virtual New Year’s message.
She said the political turmoil that has characterised South Africa over the past 29 years has left them all feeling dispirited.
“Our youth face the daunting challenge of rampant unemployment, and our women and children are continuously plagued by the devastating scourge of abuse and discrimination. We are a nation that triumphed in the face of seemingly insurmountable odds. We cast off the debilitating shackles of Apartheid and walked into the dawn of Democracy, hopeful that life would be better for all citizens who live and labour under the glorious South African sun. Sadly, these dreams were just mirages after a long, cold winter of discrimination,” she said, adding that the utopia of true freedom continues to elude the majority, who still grapple with poverty and lack of basic services.
Buthelezi added: “We are a nation under siege from corruption, maladministration, and political ineptitude. We simply cannot allow the status quo, which only benefits a small elite, to continue unabated. We have to raise our voices in unison, to demand that those who govern do so with integrity and nobility of purpose. We need to sound the alarm on gender-based violence. More women leaders need to emerge in all spheres of society and be duly recognised and compensated: after all it is our mothers, grandmothers, sisters, and aunts who nurture the future generation.”
She said as the national chairperson of the IFP Women’s Brigade, she leads the fight on a daily basis, adding that it is a fight she cannot win alone.
“Let us fight side by side for social justice. Let us amplify our voices against all that threatens our human rights and human dignity. Our decisive actions and voting wisely are the only panacea to the plethora of socio-political ills that have plunged our beautiful country into a failed state. When the darkness of evil is at its peak, the light of humanity should shine the brightest. Let us be the light. I wish you and your families a safe and prosperous year filled with hope and endless possibilities,” she said.
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