The African National Congress and Cosatu yesterday called on the government to strip kwaZulu’s chief minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi of his powers as kwaZulu’s minister of police and to disband the kwaZulu Police. The call has catapulted the Natal crisis into the forefront of government-ANC negotiations and is set to become the first serious test of the Groote Schuur ”accord”. Under the slogan ”disarm Buthelezi”, the ANC and the Congress of South African Trade Unions launched the offensive yesterday, claiming the only way to peace was to abolish the KZP.
Cosatu added to the pressure with a resolution backing a week-long national stayaway unless strong action is taken to end Natal violence. ANC southern Natal convenor Terror Lekota told the Weekly Mail: ”It is our view that the government, which bas provided Chief Buthelezi with a police force, must now take the responsibility to disarm him so that we may engage in open political activity.†He said both sides undertook to do what they could to end the violence. For its part the ANC bad agreed “to look hard at the question of the armed struggle”. However, the government bad to play its part. Not only should the South African Police be curbed, but they should also take steps to curb the ”violence from kwaZulu”. ”We can play our part in holding back our people. But the government must do the same.” Lekota said the KZP was ”killing our people”.
Yesterday the Joint Working Committee, consisting of United Democratic Front and Cosatu members delegated to deal with ways of ending the violence, issued an edition of Ubumbano, its official mouthpiece, saying the people of Natal had ”had enough of murder, rape, assassinations and plunder at the hands of the KZF, the SAP, SADF, warlords and vigilantes”. Previous attempts at organising peace talks with Buthelezi were listed, with claims be ”found one excuse after another to avoid peace talks”. ”What is happening in Natal is the worst national crisis of our time. Only united mass action throughout South Africa can end it. We have snuggled together nationally to achieve many victories. We are saying now ‘let us struggle together now to end the war in Natal’.”
The demands listed in Umbumbano are that the KZP be abolished, that an impartial peace-keeping reside in the affected areas, and for a judicial inquiry into the role of the police. Cosatu’s regional secretary Thami Moblomi said the ANC and Cosatu were still open to peace talks with Buthelezi, but it was essential there be action ”to curb the security forces”. He said if there was no such action. Cosatu would organise a week long national protest. This would be discussed by the ANC and its allies. While the ANC complains that its members are the victims of a massive sustained onslaught by the KZP and other security forces, Inkatha is compiling a detailed dossier of their members, some senior, who have been killed by the other side.
Among these victims is prominent Inkatha members and Imbali councillor Jerome Mncwabe, killed on Wednesday night. Police said he was shot by two unknown men outside his house. Last night Buthelezi described the ANC call as a concerted campaign to ”further unsuccessfully attempt to destabilise the kwaZulu government and my leadership role”. ”What they are doing is playing par y political games with people’ s lives and I will have no part in it.” Buthelezi said he was alarmed by the threat of a stayaway which, he said, had in the past resulted in bloodshed. ”This is not democratic political action at work. ”I plead with the ANC, UDF, Cosatu and others who share their agendas to stop whipping up tensions,” he said. ”Negotiate problems. Contact me personally. Walk into my office and talk about them but don’t create a situation where you have to walk over bodies before you do so.”
This article originally appeared in the Weekly Mail.
