Mangosuthu Buthelezi (27 August 1928-9 September 2023) was a South African politician who founded the conservative Inkatha Freedom Party in 1976. From 1972 to 1994, he served as the only Chief Minister of KwaZulu.
Biography[]
Buthelezi as an MP
Mangosuthu Buthelezi was born in Mahlabatini, Natal Province, South Africa on 27 August 1928, the grandson of King Dinizulu. He was admitted to Fort Hare University in 1948, and he joined the African National Congress' youth league, here he met Robert Sobukwe and Robert Mugabe. In 1951, he became chief of the Buthelezi tribe, and he became CEO of the KwaZulu Territorial Authority in 1970. In 1975, he founded the Inkatha Freedom Party, an organization committed to non-violence which soon emerged as the predominant political movement of the Zulu people. In 1976, he consolidated his rule as chief spokesman for the Zulu by becoming Chief Minister of KwaZulu, but he subsequently rejected independence for his poor nation. He consistently demanded the release of the ANC leader Nelson Mandela, though relations worsened during the 1980s owing to his opposition to international sanctions to end apartheid, arguing that the system could only be ended through the internal logic of a liberal economy. This stance, which stood in stark contrast to the socialist rhetoric of the ANC, gave him a growing international platform as a "legitimate" spokesperson for the South African blacks at the expense of the ANC, particularly among the right-wing governments of Europe and the United States.
Buthelezi's authority was fundamentally weakened by Mandela's release in 1990 and the subsequent revelation that Inkatha had received payments from the South African government (though he denied knowledge of this). In an attempt to halt his own marginalization in South African politics through Mandela's authority, he assumed a stubborn stance in the negotiations for a new constitution. He refounded the Inkatha Freedom Party in 1990, which won the state elections for the new territory of KwaZulu-Natal in 1994. In that year, he also agreed to become Minister for Home Affairs in Mandela's government, despite continuing tensions between the Inkatha and the ANC, particularly in KwaZulu-Natal. On 20 September 1994, he was dismissed by the Zulu king Goodwill Zwelithini from his office of Chief Minister of KwaZulu-Natal after considerable disagreements, but he managed to retain some influence over the province through being elected President of the Upper House (Chamber of Chiefs), which could delay provincial legislation. He served as Minister of Home Affairs until 2004, and he continued to serve as IFP chairman and an MP into the 2010s, retaining his seat after the 2014 general election. He died in 2023 at the age of 95; he was remembered as a controversial politician, as he was accused of being a puppet of the apartheid regime for opposing international sanctions on South Africa and Umkhonto we Sizwe's armed struggle while also inciting political violence against the ANC during the 1990s.