Thank you Mzwakhe for that spirited and inspired poetic rendition as well as your kind verses of endorsement. I love poetry! Poetry is not merely a turning loose of emotion, for it also serves as a means of escaping from emotion. It is both the expression of personality as well as an escape from personality. But, of course, only those who have personality and emotion know what it means to want to escape from these things. Like Mathew Arnold, I believe that since genius is mainly an affair of energy, poetry is therefore, mainly an affair of genius. Therefore a nation whose spirit is characterised by energy may well be imminent in poetry.
Fellow democrats, my speech to you today shall be intense, direct and sincere. On this occasion, marking the official launch of the BDP parliamentary and Local Council candidates of the Tati East constituency, I humbly present and offer myself to the proud people of this constituency and the nation at large as the official Parliamentary candidate of the Tati East constituency. I do so firstly because I verily believe that my constituents deserve the best and most fearless representation in our National Assembly.
