South Africa’s Zulu leader Buthelezi dies at the age of 95
Mangosuthu “Gatsha” Buthelezi in March 2009. Photo
© Uncredited/AP/dpa
Many protagonists of the South African freedom struggle are no longer alive. Now one of the last personalities of this time has died.
One of the most controversial personalities from South Africa Freedom struggle is dead. Mangosuthu “Gatsha” Buthelezi died on Saturday morning at the age of 95, as President Cyril Ramaphosa wrote on X, formerly Twitter.
The Zulu chief, party leader and later interior minister of Nelson Mandela was one of the last surviving protagonists of the anti-apartheid struggle in the Cape. He was long seen as a beacon of hope and a freedom fighter, but was also criticized by his former allies and later opponents in the African National Congress (ANC) as a stooge of the apartheid government.
Unlike Mandela’s ANC, it rejected armed struggle against the racist white apartheid government and advocated non-violent conflict resolution. Apartheid was a state doctrine that previously separated blacks and whites in South Africa. Although he called for the release of his companion Mandela, he was also seen as a shrewd profiteer from the white apartheid government.
Power struggle with more than 20,000 deaths
Buthelezi, who comes from a royal family of the large Zulu people, took over the leadership of the Buthelezi clan in 1953 after studying history before becoming head of government in 1976 for the KwaZulu tribal area in Natal, which was viewed as autonomous by the apartheid government. The supporters of the ANC, which was then banned in South Africa, excluded the Inkatha when they founded the United Democratic Front (UDF) in 1983. The conflict between the two groups led to a cruel power struggle with more than 20,000 deaths.
Buthelezi retained his parliamentary mandate well into old age. Just a few years ago, the bearded politician resigned as chairman of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), which he founded in 1975.