Lyndon Johnson, when asked why he kept J Edgar Hoover on as head of the FBI, made the famous observation that “I’d much rather have that fellow inside my tent pissing out than outside my tent pissing in”. It is a philosophy which has governed President Nelson Mandela’s attempts to handle Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi for the last two years, by appointing him to a senior cabinet post in Home Affairs.
Recently, documentation was submitted to the Magnus Malan trial which suggested that the chief was heavily involved in Operation Marion, the alleged conspiracy to deal with the Inkatha Freedom Party’s political opponents by literally exterminating them. To the suggestion that he should be in the dock with Malan and his co-accused (including Buthelezi’s own right-hand man, MZ Khumalo), the chief reacted by publicly warning that any attempt to arrest him would carry the risk of “burning this country to ashes”. This raises the question of what should be done with a fellow who is sharing one’s tent and threatening to burn it down.
Mandela has worked wonders with his policy (“passion” some might say) of national reconciliation. Indications are that he is intent on continuing his pursuit of it where Buthelezi is concerned. This week, the African National Congress announced it was making major concessions in the constitutional negotiations on the autonomy of the provinces, clearly a concession aimed at the IFP.
As we go to press, the cabinet is agonising over whether to go ahead with KwaZulu-Natal elections on May 29. We suspect that in the end it will do so – a decision which many of the ANC’s supporters in that province will see as a final betrayal.
It would be easy to accuse Mandela of appeasement and caution that such an approach never works. But rejecting the softly-softly way necessitates the advocacy of strong-arm tactics which could impel KwaZulu-Natal down the bloody road of secessionist struggle.
At the same time, we cannot help but express our disgust at the rhetoric and reality of violence which underpin Inkatha’s approach to politics.
At the very least Mandela should seriously consider whether Buthelezi belongs in the cabinet. Mandela may be obliged by the interim constitution to have IFP ministers, but there is nothing to say that it must be the party leader.
If Buthelezi must piss inside the tent, it is time he was at least limited to doing so in his own accommodation.