Home Affairs Minister Mangosuthu Buthelezi issued a statement after the Cabinet meeting on Wednesday — the last before next month’s national election — indicating strongly he thought it would be his last as part of the government.
In a statement — released with a general Cabinet statement — Buthelezi thanked ”his Excellency President Thabo Mbeki for having given us the opportunity to serve in his Cabinet”.
But Buthelezi, appearing to speak on behalf of his Inkatha Freedom Party colleague Correctional Services Minister Ben Skosana, said: ”At times it has also not been easy for us to participate in his coalition Cabinet.”
Nevertheless, Buthelezi said: ”I think history will credit him for his vision in promoting reconciliation between the IFP and the ANC [ruling African National Congress] in this manner.”
Buthelezi — who has been taken to court by Mbeki and Minister of Justice and Constitutional Development Penuell Maduna over immigration regulations — said further: ”It would also be unkind of me on an occasion such as this one, to mention the low moments and the times when I felt that this Cabinet or my own president was unfair with me, or not sufficiently confident in my competence, expertise and good faith in the exercising of my ministerial functions.
”I would rather mention the many positive moments which we shared in this Cabinet, as together we attended to the concerns of the country.”
Praising the president for ably facing the huge workload as head of Cabinet, he said: ”We are at the closure of a cycle which, in spite of its many conflicts and ups-and-downs, has served South Africa and has brought us closer to the point where our democracy can finally be regarded as having come out of the woods of the transition.”
”Much more remains to be done. What remains to be done will be the legacy that this Cabinet sends on to the next Cabinet. As we close this cycle, we do not want to anticipate what challenges will be confronting the next Cabinet, and how the next Cabinet will be best suited and composed to face those challenges.
”We wish to pause to thank President Mbeki and reflect positively on what has been done and the great experience we have shared.”
His words — while not indicating it directly — underscore speculation that Buthelezi will not be invited to serve in a unity Cabinet again.
He served in former president Nelson Mandela’s Cabinet from 1994 to 1999 as part of the national unity provision in the Constitution. The inclusion of minority parties fell away after 1999, but Mbeki invited the IFP to stay on in the Cabinet. – I-Net Bridge