Musa Zondi, MP and national spokesperson for the Inkatha Freedom Party responds:
”[Walter] Felgate’s interview could be a case study of delusion from after-politics isolation and oblivion.
”Felgate is seeking self-importance in a Don Quixote-like attempt to portray himself as the hero of epic battles. What he says has no relation neither to the truth nor with his own under-oath testimony to the in-camera TRC [Truth and Reconciliation Commission] hearings, which the IFP reviewed during the litigation. Felgate did not tell the TRC that his camp was authorised by Buthelezi. Moreover, the IFP produced a sworn statement from a key witness indicating that Felgate took extraordinary measures to ensure that Buthelezi would not know about his camp.
”There is no truth about Felgate’s activities. The camp he conducted was a joke and the people trained reported a lack of food and blankets, and reportedly were trained with Felgate’s personal arsenal.
”Only self-deluded men could have thought to deploy a few hundred ill-trained and malnourished people against the combined force of the SADF [the South African Defence Force], the SAP [the South African Police] and MK [Umkhonto weSizwe], the ANC [African National Congress] military wing, to disrupt the 1994 election.
”Felgate is desperately trying to find a role in epic tales which never happened.
”For instance, the discussion on the role of black local government in our national council never took place. In the same vein, it is preposterous for him to criticise the eight-month Malan trial, which found that there was nothing illegal in the Caprivi training which was conducted by the SADF with no involvement on the side of Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi, who had no operational control of the KwaZulu police, which was under the authority of a Pretoria-appointed commissioner.
”Felgate is deluded. It is saddening that your newspaper would give space to this bitter old man who, like a modern Iago, continues to spread his poison trying to destroy the man who elevated him above his status and whose nobility he cannot match.
”Felgate’s utility in the IFP faded away and then he became sick for several months. There is no truth in his statement that his relationship with Buthelezi had become confrontational. The entire IFP isolated him because he had little to contribute, and now his consolation is in sour-grape statements.”