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This resource is hosted by the Nelson Mandela Foundation, but was compiled and authored by Padraig O’Malley. It is the product of almost two decades of research and includes analyses, chronologies, historical documents, and interviews from the apartheid and post-apartheid eras.

Buthelezi, Mangosuthu Gatsha

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Mangosuthu Buthelezi is a member of the royal house of the Zulus. He was born on 27 August 1928 in KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. After matriculating in 1947, he obtained his Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Fort Hare, where he joined the ANC Youth League, came under the influence of Professor Z K Matthews, and met fellow students Robert Sobukwe and Robert Mugabe. He became the chief of the Buthelezi tribe in 1953.

In the early 1970's Buthelezi established Inkatha, a cultural organisation, which became later became a political party. In 1978 he played a leading role in the formation of the South African Black Alliance.

Buthelezi participated in the signing of the National Peace Accord in September 1991. In December 1991 the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) and the KwaZulu government sent representatives to the Convention for a Democratic South Africa (Codesa), but Buthelezi did not attend, protesting that Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini had not been permitted full delegate status at the convention. In February 1992 he threatened to withdraw from Codesa.

The IFP won ten percent of the national vote in the April 1994 elections. Buthelezi was appointed South African Minister of Home Affairs, which post he held until 2004. He is currently the leader of the IFP.

Sources: Kotze, H. and Greyling, A. 1991. Political Organisations in South Africa A-Z. Tafelberg: Cape Town.

Gastrow, Shelagh. 1995. Who's who in South African politics. No. 5. Johannesburg: Ravan Press.

http://reference.allrefer.com/encyclopedia/B/Buthelez.html

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