Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who has passed away at the age of 95, was a very important person in South African politics. President Cyril Ramaphosa called him an excellent leader.
During apartheid, he was the leader of the KwaZulu Bantustan, a region set aside for the Zulu people by the country’s white supremacist government.
Many people believed that his government was controlled by South Africa. It did not allow any political opposition and was mostly influenced by his own party, Inkatha, which he created in 1975.
He joined forces with the African National Congress (ANC) in fighting against apartheid and worked to free Nelson Mandela.
However, he disagreed with the ANC’s position on using weapons and imposing global penalties, because he believed it was detrimental to black South Africans.
During the change to having multiple political parties, Buthelezi was worried that he would lose his control and influence. He wanted a government system where the power is shared between the central government and the local government. He also wanted to make sure that the traditional leaders of the Zulu people would be treated with respect and their positions would be protected.
The ANC and Inkatha fought against each other, and around 12,000 people died in violent battles in the early 1990s. Many people think that the apartheid government caused these fights to happen.
Some people were afraid that the fighting would start a civil war, but Buthelezi later agreed to be part of Mandela’s government in 1994. Despite ongoing conflicts, he held the position of minister responsible for domestic matters for a period of ten years.
The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), led by Buthelezi, had a hard time gaining support outside of the Zulu people, who are the largest ethnic group in the country. However, Buthelezi was able to stay in charge and keep his position as the party’s leader despite efforts to remove him.
He stepped down as the IFP president in 2019. He was one of the few leaders from the old semi-autonomous areas who adjusted to the time after apartheid. He was admired for his ability to survive in South African politics.
Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi was born on 27 August 1928 in a place that used to be in the southeast part of Zululand.
His mother was a princess named Magogo kaDinzulu. She was the sister of the Zulu king and was well-known for singing traditional songs.
The king wanted to fix a problem between their families, so he made a plan for her to marry Buthelezi’s father, who was the leader of a very strong group of people.
When he was 14 years old, someone told him that his dad had passed away.
He was brought to the family house. He poked the ground with a spear, like Zulus do, to mark where the hole for the grave should be dug. Then he shouted loudly that he was taking ownership of what he inherited.
Buthelezi went to Adams College, a famous missionary school near Durban. However, when he started university in the Eastern Cape in 1948, the National Party won the election and started enforcing apartheid.
He became a member of the ANC and campaigned against the new government with Nelson Mandela and Oliver Tambo.
Because he was politically active and involved, he was kicked out of university. As a result, he went back to KwaZulu-Natal to become the leader of his family clan.
He got married to Irene, who is studying to become a nurse in Johannesburg. People said that his father had about 40 wives, but he didn’t want more wives because he was a practicing Anglican and didn’t want to give in to traditional Zulu pressure.
In 1954, King Cyprian chose him to be his traditional prime minister. The message was very important and often taken by a member of the Buthelezi family.
Ten years later, he acted in a movie called Zulu alongside Michael Caine. He acted as his own great-grandfather, King Cetshwayo, in the battle of Rorke’s Drift.
At that time, the first Bantu authorities were created and Buthelezi was picked as the Chief Executive of KwaZulu. A new set of laws gave him all the control over running the government, while the king’s duties became mostly symbolic.
He built his own group called Inkatha to advocate for the rights of Zulus and oppose white control.
However, supported by his new party, Buthelezi ruled with strict and firm control.
Being a part of the party was almost necessary for people who didn’t want to get fired from their jobs.
The prime minister decided to personally handle his country’s money matters and have full control over the police forces.
During apartheid, Buthelezi did not want to accept the limited amount of independence that the South African government offered the Bantustans.
“He said that South Africa is a single country. ” It only has one fate. The people who are trying to split up our country are trying to stop the flow of progress in history.
However, some people who opposed apartheid did not agree with his position.
Steve Biko, a prominent leader who fought for Black rights, was sadly killed by the South African security services. He believed that Buthelezi, another leader, was being taken advantage of by the apartheid regime. Buthelezi, on the other hand, believed that he was working alongside the system to bring it down.
His relationship with the ANC leaders who had been forced to leave the country got worse in the late 1970s.
The ANC and the South African Communist Party were working together, but Buthelezi strongly opposed communism. He believed that the group had a lot of Marxists and didn’t want to offer safe places for the armed members.
He worked to convince others to remove economic punishments against South Africa, strongly believing that he needed to make sure black children received food and clothing.
Buthelezi received compliments from British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher for his method, but one ANC activist criticized him as a South African government follower who was living in a delusional world.
Archbishop Desmond Tutu had to ask him to leave a funeral because many black mourners were throwing stones.
When Nelson Mandela was put in prison, Buthelezi and the ANC agreed on the same thing.
The leader of Inkatha was determined in his efforts to have the highly respected person released from prison on Robben Island. Afterwards, he proudly stated that he was solely responsible for making it happen.
However, fights between followers of the two groups became more intense leading up to the initial democratic elections.
Until he died, Buthelezi said that the ANC caused most of the violence. However, later on, it was found out that Inkatha received help from the South African military to fund groups of people who would commit attacks.
The Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which was made to find out the hidden wrongdoings of the apartheid time and encourage healing, blamed him of being involved in severe violations of human rights.
The allegations made people very mad.
Chief Buthelezi said he never allowed or supported violations of people’s rights. The TRC’s final report in 2003 was postponed because Buthelezi insisted on certain changes.
Many ANC activists disliked him, and he initially intended to not participate in the important 1994 elections. However, he had a last-minute change of heart and decided to participate after all. Buthelezi’s photo had to be stuck onto each voting slip because the ballot papers were already printed.
South Africa’s new constitution stated that the ANC, which won the election, must create a government with multiple political parties, sharing power temporarily until a permanent government is established.
As a result, Buthelezi was given the job of being in charge of Home Affairs. Sometimes, he would pretend to be the president when Nelson Mandela was away.
He kept his job after the 1999 elections, but his relationship with the ANC started to deteriorate again.
A disagreement about new rules for people moving to a different country resulted in an unusual event where President Thabo Mbeki sued a member of his own government.
“I don’t know of any other case where a president has sued his own minister and even tried to make him pay the legal costs personally,” Chief Buthelezi said afterwards.
After the 2004 elections, Inkatha, which changed its name to the Inkatha Freedom Party, went back to being in the minority group in the government.
Five years later, the IFP lost votes to the ANC’s new leader, Jacob Zuma, who was also Zulu.
The young members of the party in KwaZulu-Natal wanted new leaders, but they were kicked out of the party.
Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi is a prominent leader who has played a significant role in South African politics.
In 2019, Chief Buthelezi said he would not run again for the IFP presidency. He left the job after being in it for 45 years.
But he still stayed as a member of the South African parliament and traditional prime minister in a place called KwaZulu-Natal.
In his 90s, he played a key role in the fight for the Zulu royal family’s leadership after King Zwelithini died in 2021.
Buthelezi’s chosen person to become king was successful, but there was a disagreement over who would be the leader of the Ingonyama Trust Board. This led to heated arguments and fighting. The trust board takes care of large areas of land that belong to the royal family.
In 2023, King Misuzulu kaZwelithini had to deny rumors that someone had given him poison. The royal family had arguments and this caused people to hear that the king’s relationship with his chief minister was almost broken.
Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi was someone who had many different qualities and characteristics.
He was proud, liked to sue people a lot, and made impulsive decisions. He was well-known for his extremely long speeches in parliament. One of his speeches was 427 pages long and it took him over two weeks to finish.
He had a personality that could be described as intimidating. People said he was able to easily switch between being very charming and being exceptionally aggressive.
However, it was his actions and decisions during the time of apartheid that continue to cause disagreements and conflicts within South Africa.
Chief Buthelezi tried his hardest to keep his people safe from a bad government, even though he was secretly working against them.
However, his enemies will remember him as someone who held a powerful position comfortably, while “true” activists were being sent to prison, forced to leave their homeland, physically assaulted, and even killed.