'Unemployment, poverty, HIV/Aids, common criminals and those who are corrupt and defend corruption are the enemies that continue to strangle the spirit of our Freedom and they must be defeated at all costs,' Ms De Lille says.

The ID leader says that while on constituency work in provinces around the country recently, 'I have seen firsthand the inhumane conditions that so many of our people are still living in.

'A mother in a tribal authority meeting including Xhosa Chiefs stood up and told me, "Patricia, people tell me that Apartheid is dead, but in our area Apartheid is not dead because we are still living in the same conditions",' says De Lille.

'It is of major concern to the Independent Democrats that 14 years after Freedom, not enough has been done to meet the basic needs of so many of our people.

'Our current democracy is quite stable, but we must work as leaders and as citizens to strengthen our multi-party democracy and to ensure that Government delivers on its promises,' De Lille says.

'We can celebrate our political freedom, but economic freedom for our people has continued to remain elusive. We cannot talk about freedom when poverty and unemployment continue to ravage so many families.

`Government must act urgently to address the issue of poverty and the affect of rising food prices that are putting enormous strain on the poor and South Africans in general,' says De Lille.