Businessman Vivian Reddy is greeted by IFP president Velenkosini Hlabisa and Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi after announcing an undisclosed donation during the launch of Buthelezi’s foundation. Picture: Nqobile Mbonambi/African News Agency (ANA)
Durban — Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi has again pleaded with the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal to meet him and “close the wounds left open” by the political violence between their parties.
Deviating from his written speech he was delivering at the launch of his foundation in Durban on Thursday, Inkosi Buthelezi made an impassioned plea to the ANC that he would love the wounds to be closed before he closes his eyes for good.
The founder of the IFP said it was even wrong to refer to him as a former ANC member, because he is still regarded as its member, adding that the IFP was a front for the ANC at the time.
“You know I founded the IFP at the request of the late Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda when I visited him and then Tanzanian president Julius Nyerere to thank them for housing exiled liberation fighters.
“They asked me to go back and found a membership-based organisation to carry on with the work of the liberation movement after they were banned. I then consulted with my president Oliver Tambo who was also in Zambia, and he gave me the go-ahead,” said Buthelezi.
He also said he was impressed by the words of the ANC in the province which wished him well on his birthday on Sunday, saying the new party leadership had “unsaid” the wrong things that it had in the past said about him.
Supporting his claim that the IFP was a front for the ANC, the prince of KwaPhindangene said he did not remove the ANC colours of green black and gold, but added white and red on it, adding that was because he wanted to show that the party was formed on the instruction of the ANC leaders of that time.
It was not the first time Buthelezi has said this, he did so in 2018 at his 90th birthday celebration.
Referring to the foundation, Buthelezi said it was an honour to have a foundation in his name. The true gift was not being honoured, but knowing that what he has tried to achieve in his life will continue to be pursued long after his lifetime, adding that perhaps at some point the mission will finally be accomplished.
“Life is a series of decisions. Some are difficult, complex and even painful. Some are sacrificial for the sake of a higher calling. And some are simple and easy to make. The decision to serve my country has been all of these combined. It has at various times been the obvious path of my birth and destiny, and the heaviest burden one could imagine. But always, always, it has been worth the effort.
“I am humbled by the tremendous work that has gone into the making of this foundation. I am humbled by the mere fact that a group of individuals saw it fit to formally capture the principles of my life’s work and create a vehicle through which those principles and that work can be carried forward,” said Buthelezi.
The IFP president, and also chairperson of the foundation, said it has set 10 objectives with the key to promote peace through negotiations and protecting the country’s constitution.
Leading the fundraising event was Durban businessman Vivian Reddy, who was the first to go to the podium and make his pledge. Reddy, however, said he did not want to reveal how much he was donating, because he did not want his donation to be the one making headlines but rather the launch of the foundation.
Many people who took to the podium pledged R100 000, including Chichi Maponya, the late Richard Maponya’s daughter.
Daily News