The lives of people in KwaZulu/Natal have been shaped for more than five years by the politics of the graveyard. When some political leaders want their way, it has become habitual for them to use violence and threaten more of it. It is no exaggeration to say the constitution of the country’s problem province is erected on the bodies of thousands of people who have died in civil strife there.
This week Nelson Mandela announced the time had come to rid the region of its ugly addiction. He announced Parliament was about to pass a law enabling him to personally pay the salaries of chiefs in the province. And the president threatened to use tough measures, including a state of emergency and a cut in funds to the province, if violence is used to oppose him.
The resolute stand is in marked contrast to the way in which Mandela has treaded softly with Inkatha leader Mangosuthu Buthelezi in the past. The president and his inner circle have reckoned they can make this move for two reasons. Inkatha has lost most of its paramilitary capacity and King Goodwill Zwelithini appears to have survived the turbulence that surrounded his decision to break from
The flow of secret weapons supplies to self defence units in KwaZulu/Natal from right-wing groups appears to have been blocked. Senior ranking members of the KwaZulu Police and Inkatha have recently been implicated by self-confessed hit squad members. Police Minister Sydney Mufamadi’s crack team of independent investigators has shown a resolute will to track down perpetrators of political violence in the
This week King Goodwill emerged from a period of political seclusion to make a keynote address in the provincial parliament. His speech was predictable, urging all parties not to drag him into their political agendas, but his confident reappearance was clearly designed to coincide with Mandela’s broadside against violence being used as a political tactic in national politics.
Mandela’s advisers reckon all that remains is to remove the sources of patronage that allow some chiefs and warlords in the province to mobilise traditional regiments (amabutho) and to organise political rallies in apparent displays of spontaneous support against policies they disagree with. Hence Mandela’s decision to pay chiefs’ salaries from Pretoria ”whether they like it or not” and the stern warning about official provincial funds being funnelled into activities that fan violence.
Parliament will resonate with debates how legal this all is in terms of the country’s interim constitution. But Mandela’s determination could well sound a long overdue death knell for the kind of amabutho diplomacy that has left up to 20 000 people dead during the search for an end to apartheid.