The president's speech contains only one reference to me. It notes that I raised the need to improve the state's performance. All of the president's other remarks about my legacy were made off the cuff.

I was shocked that the president would stoop to this level.

After trivialising the issue of reconciliation and expressing an intention to meet with me, when he can find the time, the president deepened his initial insult by attacking my legacy as minister of home affairs. Until now, the ANC has reserved its attacks for everything I did before liberation. But now it is open season on Buthelezi.

There is no truth to the president's claim that I, "an experienced minister who had run a homeland, could not turn (home affairs) around."

His next remark betrays his lack of objectivity. "We turned it around," he claims, meaning the ANC.

Under my leadership, we performed a complete policy and legislative overhaul that opened South Africa to skilled migration, supported economic development and enabled more efficient service delivery. Within those first 10 years, we turned home affairs around. In 2004, the ANC took over a patient that had been resuscitated and rehabilitated, and was ready for active duty.

But, true to the ANC's nature, processes were centralised so that no one outside head office could do anything for anyone. The result was an instant backlog in service delivery. In 2012, eight years later, the president is still talking about backlogs of 57000 permit applications.

As minister, I created the critical skills list that would expedite the entry of skilled foreigners into South Africa. Under the ANC, it faltered through lack of consultation with business and trade and industry, and delays in updates.

I gave the ANC a system which could have gained us 740000 skilled individuals a year, boosting our economy and skills base. Over two years, they fumbled the ball so badly that we got only 2342. I gave the ANC an Immigration Advisory Board, yet under the ANC it too stalled and faltered, as the minister ignored it completely, causing even the chairperson to resign in frustration.

The president is right in saying the ANC turned home affairs around. The problem is it was facing the right direction when they got it. - Prince Mangosuthu Buthulezi MP, president of the Inkatha Freedom Party