David Shapshak
MEMBERS of a right-wing cabal long involved with Mangosuthu Buthelezi and the Inkatha Freedom Party may now have a say in who is next to rule Britain.
Prime Minister John Major, who faces a general election by next year at the latest, is running scared in the face of a challenge from the Referendum Party which is threatening to split the Conservative vote unless the UK government agrees to a plebiscite on British withdrawal from the European Union.
Key figures in the Referendum Party have intriguing links with South Africa. Its leader, Sir James Goldsmith, is a well-known Inkatha backer. A close friend of Buthelezi’s, he is believed to have been involved in plans at one stage to set up a “strike force” for the Zulu leader, with the help of former members of the elite special forces unit, the Special Air Service.
Goldsmith, a legendary gambler, has also been involved in business initiatives in KwaZulu-Natal, bidding at one stage for the development of Durban’s Point as well as showing an interest in obtaining casino rights in the province.
Another important figure in the Referendum Party, campaign manager Marc Gordon, is a former agent of South African Military Intelligence (MI). Gordon – who reportedly used to delight in wearing a sweat shirt bearing the slogan “hang Nelson Mandela” – was executive director in London of the International Freedom Foundation (IFF), an MI front organisation.
The IFF made strenuous efforts in the early 1990s to smear the African National Congress over the Angolan camps scandal, as well as fabricating stories about links between the liberation movement and the Irish Republican Army. It is also believed to have fed “intelligence” to Margaret Thatcher while she was at 10 Downing Street. The IFF collapsed after FW de Klerk cut its funding in his “clean-up” of the intelligence services following the Inkathagate scandal.
In the late 1980s MI used the IFF to try to buy influence over American foreign policy in Africa, by offering to buy a R2-million executive jet for the current Republican candidate for vice-president, Jack Kemp.
Gordon was also a member of a British team of “spin doctors” brought in by Inkatha to advise them on the conduct of their campaign in June’s local government elections.
A spokesman for the Referendum Party, Tim Martin, told the M&G this week they were “very pleased that Mark Gordon joined the party to work with us”. They had looked into the South African links before he joined the party and were satisfied with the results.