The IFP and ANC must work in unison for the betterment of South Africans, former Nigerian president Olusegun Obasanjo said on Tuesday when he delivered the inaugural Prince Mangosuthu Buthelezi annual lecture in Durban.
Obasanjo did not shy away from the contested legacy of Buthelezi, especially his willingness to serve under the Bantustan system created by the apartheid government. “Debates raged at the time about how best to handle the apartheid homeland system. Most of those who took up leadership positions in the homeland structures were branded as puppets of the apartheid regime, anti-revolutionaries and enemies of progress,” he said.
“It cannot be denied that the position of chief executive officer of the Zulu territorial authority was created by apartheid. Accepting these positions must not be taken out of its historical contexts, but many people would say serving as a leader of a Bantustan afforded Buthelezi the opportunity to undermine the apartheid system from within — and that he did.
“Whether people wanted to cast Buthelezi as a villain or not, it cannot be denied that he was a significant player during a crucial period of the world’s history.” To emphasise his point, he told a story of his visit to Nelson Mandela in Pollsmoor prison in the late 1980s where they spoke about challenges that awaited him outside prison, including ethnic divisions. He saidMandela told Obasanjo: “Comrade Buthelezi is a freedom fighter in his own right. The means are different but the objectives are the same.”
He added that Mandela never questioned the genuineness and authenticity of Buthelezi’s commitment to a free South Africa.
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