The mood was sombre as the scorching sun sank at the eMahlabathini village outside Ulundi, signalling the end of the life of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, one of South Africa’s most colourful politicians.
Police have cordoned off the road leading to kwaPhindangene, with not much activity except a few VIP vehicles that drove towards his ancestral home.
Family spokesperson Dr Bhekuyise Buthelezi explained yesterday that: “Mourners are not yet permitted to visit kwaPhindangene until further communication.”
But while condolences poured in yesterday, it was unclear whether AmaZulu king MisuZulu kaZwelithini would even attend Buthelezi’s funeral.
An insider at the AmaZulu royal house told Sunday World that the king had learnt through secondary sources that Buthelezi had died.
“It was embarrassing for the king to be informed like a commoner that uMntwana had passed on. The message did not come from kwaPhindangene,” he said.
An attempt to reach the king’s spokesperson yesterday to confirm whether the king would pay his last respects to Buthelezi proved futile.
Yesterday, MisuZulu presided over the annual reed dance ceremony in KwaNongoma, a few kilometres from kwaPhindangene.
The pair, who used to be close allies, no longer saw eye-to-eye following its public fallout.
At the heart of the hostility was the chairpersonship of Ingonyama Trust, an entity that controls over 2-million hectares of tribal land in KwaZulu-Natal and whose sole trustee is the king.
Buthelezi, who forced the act as a condition to Inkatha’s participation in the maiden democratic elections, was aggrieved that his close confidante and retired Judge Jerome Ngwenya was removed as chairman.
Ngwenya was replaced with Thanduyise Mzimela, an inkosi of the Mzimela clan covering Mthunzini and surrounding areas in northern KwaZulu-Natal.
So serious was the tiff that the king was prohibited from visiting Buthelezi, who was languishing in a hospital.
Speaking to this paper, MisuZulu’s spokesperson Prince Africa Zulu denied that the king was snubbed.
Instead, he said: “It was common cultural practice that the king did not visit hospitals, funerals or places where corpses are kept.”
uMntwana kaPhindangene, as Buthelezi was affectionately called among his throngs of followers, died in the early hours of yesterday morning.
Announcing his passing, President Cyril Ramaphosa described Buthelezi as an outstanding leader in political and cultural life.
It had just been a few days since the 95-year-old was discharged from the hospital where he had been admitted for a back pain procedure.
Ramaphosa said in a statement yesterday that further announcements would be made in due course, based on consultations between the government and the family.
He said there were plans to mourn and honour the inkosi of the Buthelezi clan “as a formidable leader who has played a significant role in our country’s history for seven decades”.
Buthelezi also served as the AmaZulu traditional prime minister to successive Zulu kings, making him a hero.
But to some, he was considered a polarising figure, with some hailing him a hero while others viewed him as a villain who aided the apartheid regime’s machinery.
Having traversed both apartheid and democratic dispensations, Buthelezi, a revered historian, orator and custodian of Zulu culture, died while calling for reconciliation between the ANC and IFP in the aftermath of the bloody 1990 violence that claimed more than 20 000 lives, mainly in KwaZulu-Natal.
Although the IFP, the party which he founded and was its president emeritus at the time of his death, was blamed for the killings, Buthelezi protested his innocence, saying the party was in fact a victim instead of being an instigator.
Buthelezi, who was famous for his interminable parliamentary speeches, was also considered a person who possessed both unbridled charm and ruthless bellicosity.
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