The death of the doyen of South Africa’s politics, Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, marks an end of an era, whose timespan was populated by great liberation fighters – Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo and Robert Mangaliso Sobukwe, among others, his contemporaries at the University of Fort Hare.
He was a proud member of the ANC Youth League in his youth, an achievement he cherished throughout his long political career.
Born into Zulu tribal royalty, Buthelezi harboured the dream of becoming a lawyer – and indeed after earning a BA degree in Roman Law, history and native administration, he enrolled for an LLB degree at the then University of Natal in the 1950s, which he did not complete, as he was recalled to his homestead of Mahlabathini, KwaZulu-Natal, to assume the chieftaincy. This put paid to young Buthelezi’s dream of becoming a lawyer.
He would instead pursue a career in politics, establishing a movement that would morph into the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP).
Controversial, yet a shrewd politician. While on the one hand he worked within the parameters of Bantustan politics, he walked a tight rope, arguing it would be better to fight an evil of apartheid from inside its belly, a posture that would put him at odds with many leaders drawn from the liberation movement, and was often called “a sell-out”.
Buthelezi, a historian and an erudite politician, dies at the time when his organisation needed his wise counsel and his presence the most if it is hoping to unseat the ANC in KwaZulu-Natal.
A great orator and debater, Buthelezi had never been shy to describe himself, even as the IFP leader, an ANC member at heart, having had his politics birthed in the belly of the movement. He now joins his contemporaries in death – the Mandelas, Sobukwes and Tambos.
We salute you, Shenge. Hamba kahle Mtwana kaPhindangene!
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