Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi wants to heal political violence wounds with the ANC while still alive. Picture: Doctor Ngcobo/African News Agency (ANA)
Durban — Political analyst Lukhona Mnguni has praised IFP and ANC leaders for agreeing to meet and finally bury the hatchet.
Mnguni, political lecturer and TV personality from the University of KwaZulu-Natal told the Daily News on Sunday that although violence between the two parties had long ended, there was still a need for some form of public cleansing and healing of wounds between them.
The process should end with apologies from both sides, he said. He was reacting to the ANC statement on Friday which finally heeded IFP founder Inkosi Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s plea for parties to meet and close the wounds that were left by deadly political violence between the two parties in the late 80s up to the early 90s.
“Although there was no more violence, there is still an outstanding legacy of violence between these parties. There is still high tension between some ANC and IFP supporters and there are unhealed wounds. I think Buthelezi wants some form of cleansing between the parties and visiting of violence sites,” said Mnguni.
In its media briefing on Friday, ANC provincial secretary, Bheki Mtolo, said his party would set up a team to discuss reconciliation which inkosi Buthelezi has been calling for.
Mtolo said the ANC was inspired by his reconciliation gesture and remained convinced that the forebears of this freedom – who never lived long to taste the fruits of democracy – were in support of the decision of the ANC in the province to assign a team of elders to have dialogue with Buthelezi to discuss his wishes to reunite with the ANC.
IFP national spokesperson Mkhuleko Hlengwa said the party welcomed the newfound attitude towards them by the ANC for reconciliation, saying they hoped it was genuine.
“Accordingly we await official correspondence from the ANC and the IFP is ready once again to engage with the ANC on this matter,” said Hlengwa.
On Thursday during his foundation launch, Inkosi Buthelezi again pleaded with the ANC to meet him to close violence wounds. Buthelezi said he was encouraged by warm wishes on his 94th birthday from the new ANC leadership which he described as “unsaying” the bad things the party had said about him in the past.
Buthelezi wrote a letter, published by this paper, where he thanked and praised the ANC for wishing him well on his birthday when he turned 94. Inkosi appeared to be frail and had to address the guests at his foundation launch seated. He now uses a walking stick.
Speaking at the event he said his best wish was that his party meet the ANC and finally heal wounds before he dies. Inkosi said he still regarded himself as a member of the ANC, adding it was party leaders like Pixley kaSeme and Inkosi Albert Luthuli who mentored and shaped his political career. He formed the party at the request of the late Zambian president Kenneth Kaunda and the late ANC president Oliver Tambo who approved his founding of the IFP in 1975, he said.
Buthelezi seems to be enjoying respect by the ANC national leadership, but this has not been the same with provincial leaders especially, with former provincial secretary Mdumiseni Ntuli who publicly clashed with him over the handling of the kingship issues and the renaming of ANC’s Zululand region as Mzala Nxumalo.
The ANC under Ntuli accused Buthelezi of using the king to bolster his party support by claiming it was only the IFP that was supporting the king and portraying the ANC as anti-Zulu.
Buthelezi was also irked by the renaming of the ANC Zululand region after the late Nxumalo who was his fiercest critic. Nxumalo authored a damning book titled Gatsha Buthelezi: A chief with a double agenda. It is this book which Buthelezi successfully legally stopped to be distributed. Nxumalo questioned his title of a prince.
The IFP and ANC violence started after his rejection of the armed Struggle and economic sanctions against South Africa under apartheid which the ANC had called for. This angered the ANC which called Buthelezi a sellout. That degenerated into violence which left more than 20 000 people dead, according to the statistics released by the IFP years ago.
After the release of Nelson Mandela from prison a joint rally was organised which was to be addressed by him and Buthelezi but that was blocked by ANC firebrand Harry Gwala. One of the violent sites was in Pietermaritzburg, known today as the 7-day war where many from both sides died.
Daily News