EDITORIAL: Buthelezi’s mixed legacy
After his opposition to sanctions against apartheid, he played a more constructive role in the democratic era
As expected, the death of IFP founder, Mangosuthu Buthelezi, has sparked a heated, but binary, appraisal of his legacy. In life as in death he was a polarising figure who left little room for a nuanced assessment of his contribution to the new SA.
Probably the biggest stain in his legacy was his role in the period leading up to the end of formal apartheid in 1994. His opposition to economic sanctions against apartheid SA forced him closer into the arms of the Pretoria regime and its allies in the West. This drove him away from his initial political home, the ANC, and discredited the IFP’s credentials as a front of the banned ANC...
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