One, Two…Mic Check

By Nco Dube

The Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) was built via what was originally a Zulu ‘cultural movement’. Its constituency was built using its leader Chief Mangosuthu Buthelezi’s central and influential role in the Zulu Royal House and his position as the Traditional Prime Minister to the Zulu Monarch and Nation. Through his position as Chief Minister of the erstwhile KwaZulu Government, Chief Buthelezi also controlled not only the Zulu King’s purse strings but those of the aMakhosi Ezizwe as well.

This gave him tremendous power over the King as a majority of aMakhosi were loyal to him before they were to the King. The Zulu Monarch has no direct power over his subjects (except those under the Osuthu Traditional Authority, KwaNongoma) and ‘rules’ the Zulu nation through aMakhosi Ezizwe. If the King loses their loyalty, he loses his ability to rule the Zulu nation. So the late King Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu had no choice but to allow himself to be used as political fodder by Inkatha under Chief Buthelezi’s well-crafted web of captured Zulu Nationalism.

Zulu nationalism was developed and exploited as a unique brand of politics by Chief Buthelezi and Inkatha to ensure that the biggest ethnic group in South Africa became his natural constituency.

When King Zwelithini kaBhekuzulu passed on, Chief Buthelezi through his central role at the Royal House as the late King’s Prime Minister outmaneuvered everyone who had any designs for the Zulu throne and made sure he became the undisputed kingmaker. The ruling ANC would have preferred to have played a role and influenced the processes of installing the new King but were outsmarted by the wily old Chief, the Prince of KwaPhindangene.

So, when the newly installed King Misuzulu kaZwelithini had to look for a new Prime Minister after the recent demise of Chief Buthelezi and while he was in the midst of a bitter multi-front legal battle over the Zulu throne with his brother Prince Simakade on the one side and a faction of the Royal Household led by his uncle Prince Mbonisi, he had two choices.

His first choice was to move away from the IFP and choose someone who was politically neutral but maybe influential in the Royal Household and who could unify everyone behind him. The second choice was to entrench himself further in the IFP to solidify aMakhosi’s loyalty to him. 

AMakhosi are very influential in their areas of jurisdiction and that influence extends to politics. So when His Majesty, The King appointed Rev Thulasizwe Buthelezi as his Prime Minister and INkosi Phathisizwe Chiliza as deputy, he was looking for an IFP insider as well as INkosi as Amakhosi are at the very source of his power base. He was looking for someone to extend the web of power originally cunningly woven by Shenge, uMntwana waKwaPhindangene, and make sure he had unfettered access to the IFP constituency that is made up almost exclusively of Zulu people. The IFP is easily the biggest block of conservative Zulu nationalists that the King needs in his corner in the struggle for the throne still going on in the courts.

The ANC in KZN should have understood early on that Rev Buthelezi was going to try and emulate the elder Shenge who never failed to use the traditional Prime Minister platform to score political points against the ANC. It was understood that once he was on that platform he was speaking with authority from His Majesty the King and one needed to find diplomatic ways to counter his frequent abuse of that platform.

What happened on stage at the 110th commemoration of King Dinuzulu kaCetshwayo  kwaCeza was not only reckless but showed a total lack of understanding of how the elder Shenge had woven the Zulu throne into the fabric of his Inkatha constituency. How he married Zulu nationalism with the IFP politics and made them almost synonymous with each other. 

There is no doubt that Rev Buthelezi was abusing the platform for cheap political points under the guise of speaking up for the King. That is something he learned from his political master, the elder Shenge who had perfected the strategy over decades.

Sadly, the ANC KZN Chairperson fell into the trap so spectacularly. He acted immaturely and in so doing did nothing to dispel the perception that the KZN ANC does not respect the Royal House or the rumours that it did not want the incumbent King to ascend the throne and had someone else in mind.

His actions on that stage were so erroneous they showed a leader who lacked respect for traditional leadership, lacked leadership maturity, was intolerant, and a leader who did not understand the risks that come with such recklessness in a province with as violent a history as KZN.

He also came across as representative of a frustrated provincial leadership that has run out of ideas to counter the predicted tide of change expected to sweep through the province at the polls in May fuelled by a resurgent IFP and the emergence of the wildcard, the Zuma-led MKP.

Of course, it is sad but hardly surprising that the alleged IFP resorted to violence against alleged ANC supporters in a stick beating reminiscent of the 1980s and is exactly something any mature leader would have thought of before embarking on a reckless confrontation like that on stage and in front of thousands of people and the cameras.

The ANC might look back from the floor of the IEC results centre in just over two months and pinpoint exactly how they might have lost an election with a simple but reckless grabbing of a microphone. 

Two months is a long time though and the ANC is known for its unmatched, well-oiled electoral machinery that is always late but has been known to overcome scandal and deliver at the last minute. 

They just might need to keep some people away from the microphone.