Mangosuthu Buthelezi, a seasoned politician and Zulu prince, was given a state funeral on Saturday (September 16, 2023) in the eastern town of Ulundi, South Africa.
Buthelezi, a divisive character in the struggle to liberate South Africa from apartheid due to his savage rivalry with the African National Congress (ANC), passed away last week at the age of 95.
After making peace with his ANC adversary and rival for the position of president, Nelson Mandela, the founder of the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) served two terms as Minister of Home Affairs in the post-apartheid administration.
By the time Buthelezi made the decision to mend fences, fighting between his supporters and those of the ANC had claimed 20,000 lives and driven hundreds of thousands from their homes, earning the Zulu prince the label of a warlord from detractors.
President Cyril Ramaphosa’s eulogy was interrupted by a group of IFP supporters who sang songs from the struggle and shouted, “He is not our president,” as a show of lingering animosity.
“Today is not a day to point fingers and cast blame,” Ramaphosa said, before Buthelezi’s coffin was brought out, draped in the national flag, for a 21-gun salute. “Let us look forward to the future with a … focus on what unites us.”
Some of the mourners carried cowhide shields and wore traditional Zulu clothing made of leopard and other animal skins. Six impalas and two giraffes were killed and skinned, according to South African media, as part of the customary preparations.
The IFP was established by Buthelezi in 1975, and it quickly rose to prominence in what is now KwaZulu-Natal. Like the ANC, Buthelezi opposed white minority rule, which had reduced the extent of the “homelands” of the Zulus and other Black South African countries.
However, in the 1980s and 1990s, his Zulu nationalist organization became embroiled in brutal confrontations with the ANC. Because the ANC was predominately made up of Xhosa people, who opposed apartheid, its leaders viewed Buthelezi’s intermittent readiness to cooperate with the regime as a betrayal of all Black South Africans.
When Buthelezi made the decision to run in South Africa’s first national election following the end of white minority rule, which propelled Mandela to power, the two sides reached an agreement.
“(Buthelezi) was not a man who let a burning issue slide … and yet he (had) an understanding of the immense difficulties we face in rebuilding this country,” Ramaphosa said. “He … defended the institutions of our democratic order.”
In 2019, the Zulu chief resigned as IFP chairman. In July, he had a procedure for back pain, but when it persisted, he had to go back to the hospital.
