When I read the front page headline “Big Brother Gatsha, he’s gonna watch ya” I became very angry. I then wondered whether the M&G would sufficiently appreciate the reasons for my anger or could even fully understand them. My anger may seem to come from personal sensitivity and yet, for those who know the history of our country, there is indeed a political issue.
My pet name, Gatsha, was a diminutive given to me by my grandmother which she used as a term of endearment, and my mother also used it. I allowed only my closest friends to use it. Then, when the armed struggle turned against Inkatha and myself and I become the primary object of African National Congress vilification, that very nickname was used by the ANC to incite my followers to a fight. The name Gatsha was used as a pejorative, almost a call to war. Only those who wanted to insult or mock me called me “Gatsha”. People have suffered and many have died because of it. For this and other reasons, not least out of respect for her memory, when my mother died 17 years ago I stopped using that name. All responsible and knowledgeable journalists know this, and only when they wish to provoke or insult me do they resort to my old nickname. No other journalist or newspaper ever uses that pet name because of that well-known history that it was appropriated by those who wanted to diminish or denigrate me.
No one ever refers to President Mandela by his first name. Throughout African culture it is deeply insulting to refer to anyone by his or her first name, let alone leaders or anyone older in age than oneself. I understand that some people have taken on the habit of calling President Mbeki by his first name and actually it was I who in the Cabinet objected to this practise and requested that he be referred to respectfully as the President.
We blacks are the majority in this country. During our oppression from colonial times and during the apartheid era, our culture was trampled on by white people to diminish us and to emphasise their superiority over us. There is no reason this disdain should continue in a free and liberated South Africa.
In our culture, anyone who wishes not to be insulting or disrespectful will use the vocative second family name of one of one’s forebears, such as “Madiba” for President Mandela, or in my case it would be with my own vocative second family name of “Shenge”. Any member of the Buthelezi clan is entitled to it. I use it even for my own children and grandchildren. If there was a compelling reason to show disrespect for African culture and call me by my first name, obviously my first name is Mangosuthu which is the name my father gave me. And what is strange to me is that during my public life of five decades, and even during the colonial period, no white politician or head of government was ever referred to publicly or in the media by their first name. And yet your paper keeps on using President Mbeki’s first name as a headline to show a disdain for a Head of State which is something that I see for the first time in my life.
You can be as critical of us as you are entitled to under our democratic dispensation. But please do not remind us of the wounds to our souls that we have endured for so long under the oppressive system we were subjected to for so long.
Having said that, I must wonder why it was necessary to insult me so deeply on your front page. I concede the alliteration in the heading and its catchy appeal, but wonder whether a half-decent newspaper would need to stoop so low to sell a few more copies. Is the tone and vein in which you have always written about me not sufficient for venting your spleen on your bte noire? MG Buthelezi, Minister of Home Affairs and president, Inkatha Freedom Party