In the midst of peace talks in the violence-strewn Pietermaritzburg area, Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi, president of Inkatha, has delivered a major denunciation of the United Democratic Front and the Congress of South African Trade Unions.
In a speech released to the press, he told his central committee the UDF and Cosatu were "not worthy" of reconciliation. "I am now coming closer to believing that the only reconciliation there will ever be in this country is the reconciliation of the most powerful with those who pay homage to the powerful," Buthelezi said. "We are talking about a life and death struggle. We are talking about all-or-nothing victories. We are talking about the final triumph by good over evil".
This speech was followed on Thursday by a breakdown in talks between the two groups. The Thursday talks, part of a series being held under the auspices of the local Chamber of Commerce, were attended by several additional Inkatha delegates, including central committee member Seigfried Bhengu. During the meeting, the delegation produced the October issue of the journal of the Marxist Workers Tendency of the African National Congress – Inqaba Yabasebenzi – circulated by Buthelezi at the weekend's Inkatha Central Committee meeting and demanded that the UDF/Cosatu delegates publicly repudiate the journal. When they refused to do so, the talks deadlocked and were adjourned.
The UDF/Cosatu delegates said later this new development posed "serious difficulties" for the talks. They had nothing to do with the document: it did not come from their structures, did not reflect the view of their organisations and as far as they knew had not been circulated in Pietermaritzburg, they said. "Our approach has been to agree to concrete steps that will de-escalate violence and lead to peace. Attacks and recriminations against each other cannot take us forward.
National chairman of the Inkatha Youth Brigade, Musa Zondi, said they demanded a public repudiation from the UDF/Cosatu. Copies of Inqaba ya Basenbenzi were distributed at Buthelezi's request, by his personal assistant, to members of the central committee last weekend, but some days before he had read part of the contents in his speech to Pietermaritzburg's mayor, Mark Cornell, then on a goodwill visit to Ulundi.
The section read by Buthelezi to Cornell referred to vigilantes and continued, "Of these forces, Inkatha is the most formidable, because of the political base that vigilante-in- chief Gatsha Buthelezi has built in Zululand through fear and appeals to conservative tribal prejudice … "For activists especially it is a matter of life and death … To work out and put forward a clear national strategy to defeat Inkatha, Uwusa and all vigilantes is an urgent task for the leadership of Cosatu, the UDF and the ANC."
The writer goes on to criticise Cosatu for "softness and hesitation" on Inkatha and Uwusa. However, the article then complains sharply about UDF president Archie Garnette signing a truce with Inkatha. However the Marxist Workers Tendency (alleged by Buthelezi to have been responsible for the journal) is a small group of mainly white academics, purged from the ANC in 1985 after years of disagreement.
Political scientist and acknowledged ANC expert, Dr Tom Lodge, said yesterday the basically Trotskyite tendency and its journal were "not very significant". Lodge says the tendency is highly critical of the UDF as well as of Inkatha and, asked to comment on Buthelezi's remarks concerning the journal added, "This is Buthelezi at his most paranoid and stupid."
During his address to the central committee, and with the next round of peace talks just four days away, Buthelezi referred to the continuing violence in Pietermaritzburg and to attempts at "reconciliation". "I must say rather bluntly that the UDF and Cosatu are not worthy of the status oforganisations to whom we need to be reconciled. It is their choice that death keeps us apart and death is keeping us apart. There is no reconciliation with a spear being thrust into your heart…"
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
