Buthelezi, Mangosuthu Gatsha

Buthelezi, Mangosuthu Gatsha

(Ashpenaz Nathan Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi) (äsh`pĕnäz', mäng'gōso͞o`to͞o gät`shä bo͞otəlā`zē), 1928–, South African political leader. A Zulu chief, he served as chief minister of the bantustan KwaZulu (1970–94, initially as head of the Zululand Territorial Authority; see ZululandZululand
, historic region and home of the Zulus, c.10,000 sq mi (25,900 sq km), NE KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa. Zululand is bordered by the Indian Ocean on the east, by Mozambique on the north, and by Eswatini (formerly Swaziland) on the west.
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) but opposed independence for the territory. Originally an activist within the African National Congress (ANC), Buthelezi revived Inkatha, a Zulu cultural group, in 1975 as an antiapartheid and Zulu nationalist organization; it later became the Inkatha Freedom party. In the 1980s he became a prominent critic of the ANC and its support for guerrilla warfare and international sanctions against apartheidapartheid
[Afrik.,=apartness], system of racial segregation peculiar to the Republic of South Africa, the legal basis of which was largely repealed in 1991–92. History
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. He favored a solution to apartheid based on tribalism instead of a one-adult, one-vote policy and was accused of collaboration with government-backed security forces. The early 1990s saw increasingly violent clashes between Inkatha and ANC supporters; the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission report (2003) charged Inkatha with collaborating with white supremacists to massacre hundreds during this period. Inkatha boycotted (1993) the multiparty talks that wrote a new South African constitution but participated in the 1994 multiracial elections. Buthelezi was named home affairs minister in Nelson MandelaMandela, Nelson Rolihlahla
, 1918–2013, South African statesman. He earned a degree (B.A., 1943) after being expelled from the University College of Fort Hare (for taking part in a student protest) and finishing his studies with the Univ.
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's government, a position he retained during President Thabo MbekiMbeki, Thabo Mvuyelwa
, 1942–, South African political leader. Mbeki was born into a politically active family; his father, Govan Mbeki, an official with the African National Congress (ANC), was imprisoned (1964) at Robben Island along with Nelson Mandela, released (1987),
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's first term. Although violence between supporters of the ANC and Inkatha partisans persisted in KwaZulu-Natal during the mid-1990s, it subsequently largely subsided. Inkatha's share of the national vote, more than 10% in 1994, declined in subsequent elections.