Оңтүстік Африка саяхатшысы Мангосуту Бутелези: Өмір және саяси жолы

South African politician (1928–2023)

Prince Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi (,/m//æ//ŋ//ɡ//oʊ/'/s//uː//t//uː// /'/ɡ//æ//tʃ//ə// /,/b//ʊ//t//ə/'/l//eɪ//z//i/; 27 August 1928 – 9 September 2023) was a South African politician and Zulu prince who served as the traditional prime minister to the Zulu royal family from 1954 until his death in 2023. He was appointed to this post by King Bhekuzulu, the son of King Solomon kaDinuzulu, a brother to Buthelezi's mother Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu. Buthelezi was chief minister of the KwaZulu bantustan during apartheid and founded the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in 1975, leading it until 2019, and became its president emeritus soon after that. He was a political leader during Nelson Mandela's incarceration (1964–1990) and continued to be so in the post apartheid era, when he was appointed by Mandela as Minister of Home Affairs, serving from 1994 to 2004. Buthelezi was one of the most prominent black politicians of the apartheid era. He was the sole political leader of the KwaZulu government, entering when it was still the native reserve of Zululand in 1970 and remaining in office until it was abolished in 1994. Critics described his administration as a de facto one party state, intolerant of political opposition and dominated by Inkatha (now the IFP), Buthelezi's political movement. In parallel to his mainstream political career, Buthelezi held the Inkosi of the Buthelezi clan, being the son of Inkosi Mathole Buthelezi, and was traditional prime minister to three successive Zulu kings, beginning with King Cyprian Bhekuzulu in 1954. He was himself born into the Zulu royal family; his maternal grandfather was King Dinuzulu who was a son of King Cetshwayo and whom Buthelezi played in the 1964 film called Zulu. While leader of KwaZulu, Buthelezi both strengthened and appropriated the public profile of the monarchy, reviving it as a symbol of Zulu nationalism. Bolstered by royal support, state resources, and Buthelezi's personal popularity, Inkatha became one of the largest political organisations in the country. During the same period, Buthelezi publicly opposed apartheid and often took a patently obstructive stance toward the apartheid government. He lobbied consistently for the release of Nelson Mandela and staunchly refused to accept the nominal independence which the government offered to KwaZulu, correctly judging that it was a superficial independence. However, Buthelezi was derided in some quarters for participating in the bantustan system, a central pillar of apartheid, and for his moderate stance on such issues as free markets, armed struggle, and international sanctions. He became a bête noire of young activists in the Black Consciousness Movement and was repudiated by many in the African National Congress (ANC). A former ANC Youth League member, Buthelezi had aligned himself and Inkatha with the ANC in the 1970s, but in the 1980s their relationship became increasingly acrimonious. It emerged in the 1990s that Buthelezi had accepted money and military assistance from the apartheid regime for Inkatha, which stoked the political violence in KwaZulu and Natal in the 1980s and 1990s. Buthelezi's role during the final decades of apartheid is controversial, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the IFP under Buthelezi's leadership "was the primary non state perpetrator" of violence during the apartheid era and named him as "a major perpetrator of violence and human rights abuses". of Buthelezi's father, Mathole Buthelezi. Mathole Buthelezi was a traditional leader as chief of the Buthelezi clan and his marriage to the princess was arranged by King Solomon to heal a rift between the clan and the royal family. From 1948 to 1950, he studied at the University of Fort Hare in the eastern Cape Province. In 1948, the National Party was elected to government in South Africa and began implementing a formal system of apartheid, and Buthelezi joined the anti apartheid African National Congress (ANC) Youth League in 1949.</blockquote>Buthelezi made much of his association with Pixley ka Isaka Seme, a founder of the ANC, who was married to his mother's half sister.' Buthelezi later recounted how Luthuli had persuaded him not to "betray my people and seek my own selfish ends away from them". As chief, Buthelezi was involved in organising a ceremony to unveil the Shaka Memorial in Stanger in September 1954, sometimes called the first Shaka Day celebration; he later said that the ceremony was the first time he or King Cyprian Bhekuzulu had ever worn "traditional" Zulu dress, which they did frequently thereafter. He also acted in the 1964 film Zulu, about the Battle of Rorke's Drift, playing the role of his real life great grandfather, King Cetshwayo kaMpande. He said that the role had already been cast but "when they came to my place, mainly to get extras for the battle scenes, then they noticed a family resemblance to my great grandfather. They said how would it be if you played the part? I agreed." Traditional prime minister
In 1954, King Cyprian appointed Buthelezi his traditional prime minister – Buthelezi lists the full title as Traditional Prime Minister to the Zulu Nation (uNdunankulu kaZulu) and Monarch. He was reappointed by Cyprian's successor, King Goodwill Zwelithini, in 1968. He pointed in particular to his paternal great grandfather, Mnyamana, who was a senior advisor to his maternal great grandfather, King Cetshwayo, during the Anglo Zulu War, and also claimed that his father was appointed traditional prime minister to his uncle, King Solomon, in 1925. Buthelezi was rumoured to have been estranged from the royal family from 1968 to 1970,

Government of KwaZulu: 1970–1994

Establishment of KwaZulu

Buthelezi's native region, the native reserve of Zululand, was affected by the Bantu Self Government Act of 1959 and the first Bantu authorities were established in 1959, though with significant resistance from parts of the population and tribal leadership. In 1970, the Zululand Territorial Authority was established, and its 200 members, most of them traditional leaders, unanimously elected Buthelezi its chief executive officer. Over the next decade, Zululand was transformed into KwaZulu, the most populous of the ten bantustans (or "homelands") established by the South African government as part of the NP's scheme of grand apartheid. On some accounts, it was during this struggle that Buthelezi began to appeal to his family's tradition of providing traditional prime ministers, seeking to establish a claim to the premiership. In 1979, for example, he accused the king and Prince Mcwayizeni of attempting to form an opposition party together; Buthelezi told a gathering in 1985:His Majesty and I share a platform and symbolize the unity of our people. His Majesty symbolizes the deep spirit of unity for the Zulu people and I symbolize the political determination to pursue time honoured values which have always been important in the struggle for liberty. Together His Majesty and I share the load which is placed on the Zulu nation. We will never be torn apart. According to Jo Beall, Buthelezi was able to mobilise Zulu symbols in this way because he maintained a support base among the region's other traditional leaders, who "bought into and gave credence to his use of Zulu ethnic identity for political purposes". In Zulu, it was first known as Inkatha ya kaZulu (Inkatha of the Zulu), and then renamed Inkatha ye Sizwe (Inkatha of the Nation) or Inkatha ye Nkululeko ye Sizwe (Inkatha of National Liberation). Yet the new Inkatha had political aims: on the movement's 40th anniversary in 2015 Buthelezi said he had formed the party to "reignite mobilisation among the oppressed majority in the hiatus left by the banning of political parties [by the apartheid government]. From the very beginning, we spoke of equality, freedom, negotiations and peaceful resistance".</blockquote>A notable feature of Inkatha was its "over personalised" character: it was, in R. W. Johnson's phrase, perceived "as a one man band". Buthelezi also attempted to build broader political coalitions. In 1976, he formed the Black Unity Front to coordinate among bantustan leaders, and in January 1978 he spearheaded the formation of a spin off organisation, the South African Black Alliance. elements of his administration were authoritarian, and he was described as personally exerting "iron fisted control" over KwaZulu. This was the result of legal and coercive constraints, and public teachers were required to make time available for students to participate in the activities of Inkatha's youth wing, the Inkatha Youth Brigade. Relations with the apartheid government

KwaZulu independence

Throughout apartheid, Buthelezi stridently refused to accept the full – but largely nominal – political and legal independence proffered by the central government and accepted by the TBVC states. In 1976, at a rally commemorating the Sharpeville massacre, he declared, "South Africa is one country. It has one destiny. Those who are attempting to divide the land of our birth are attempting to stem the tide of history." In April 1981, he rejected "Pretoria's plans for this fraudulent independence", saying that Zulus would "prefer to die in the hundreds of thousands than be forced to be foreigners in their homeland, which is South Africa". In this he partnered with Enos Mabuza, leader of the kaNgwane bantustan, which would have been ceded to Swaziland in its entirety under the proposed deal. Buthelezi argued that the apartheid government intended to use the land deal to extend South African influence in Swaziland; it would have allowed Swaziland to act as a conservative buffer state between South Africa and the left wing, pro ANC Frontline State of Mozambique. Observers also pointed out that it would advance the apartheid policy of stripping black South Africans of South African citizenship

Role in the anti apartheid struggle
The value and sincerity of Buthelezi's contribution to the anti apartheid struggle was a highly polarising issue inside South Africa during apartheid and remains controversial. Archbishop Desmond Tutu famously asked Buthelezi to leave the funeral of Robert Sobukwe in 1978 because supporters of the Pan Africanist Movement objected fiercely to his presence, throwing stones at him and calling him a "sell out" and "government stooge". Though Buthelezi left the event at Tutu's request, he had reportedly told the youths, "If you chaps want to kill me, do so. I am prepared to die"; he reflected afterwards, "I remember our Lord's crucifixion. He was spat on too". In the late 1970s, Tambo of the ANC told Herbert Vilakazi that "these '76 boys" – young ANC members radicalised during the 1976 Soweto Uprising and influenced by Black Consciousness – were insisting that he should "stop having relations with Buthelezi" and "consider him an enemy". Their stance was influenced by that of Steve Biko, the leading Black Consciousness intellectual, who had argued that the apartheid government was exploiting Buthelezi – rather than vice versa, as Buthelezi believed – and that Buthelezi "solves so many conscience problems" both for white South Africans and for foreign observers. Indeed, in his famous exposition of blackness as a political identification, Biko used Buthelezi as his example of someone who appeared black but operated as an extension of a white system. Separate development
Because he was the political leader of a bantustan, Buthelezi's alleged "collaboration" with the separate development scheme, and therefore with apartheid, was highly controversial. Nevertheless, he always insisted that his role in the bantustan system was compatible with his avowed opposition to apartheid. Academic Laurence Piper, conceding that Buthelezi's brand of resistance politics was "peculiar", described him as "a conservative nationalist intent on 'using the system against itself' by advancing anti apartheid politics within the boundaries of government tolerance". In this vein, responding to the accusation that he had switched allegiances, Buthelezi said, "What I'm doing is working within the system". In 1971, Buthelezi said that, "Homeland leaders who have accepted separate development have done so because it is the only way in which Blacks in South Africa can express themselves politically." Also in 1971, in a column for the Rand Daily Mail'' entitled "End This Master Servant Relationship", Buthelezi called on the central government to provide KwaZulu with more land and resources, arguing:The plain truth of the matter is that if the South African Government does not deliver the goods on the basis of its own scheme, the Blacks of this country will become even more disillusioned than at present I am not prepared to say that separate development is the only hope, but it may be a contribution to the development of the situation. It may be a contribution to the unravelling of the problem, insofar as, if we attain full independence, our hand will be strengthened. Gone will be the days then, one hopes, when people will think of us simply as 'kaffirs.' Buthelezi agreed with this assessment. He reminded people that Seme and John Dube had been involved in Inkatha's predecessor movement, founded by his uncle. Throughout the 1980s, there was strong anti Buthelezi sentiment among segments of the ANC. An internal ANC document published in June 1985 said that Buthelezi "projects the illusion of autonomy from the enemy and pretends to pursue national aims. His counterrevolutionary role must be exposed and we must work to win over his supporters and deprive him of his social base."' including through increased emphasis on Zulu nationalism. He opposed the armed struggle and the student protests, consumer boycotts, and union strikes that dominated grassroots anti apartheid organising in that period under the United Democratic Front (UDF). He lobbied for the repeal of the American Comprehensive Anti Apartheid Act of 1986, including on visits to the United States during which he met with President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and President George H. W. Bush in 1991. However, Buthelezi rejected the 1983 Constitution introduced by the NP to establish the Tricameral Parliament, believing, as other activists did, that the political reforms it introduced were insufficient. He campaigned for a "no" vote in the 1983 constitutional referendum alongside Frederik van Zyl Slabbert of the Progressive Federal Party and other liberals. The New York Times observed that he treated P. W. Botha, who led the South African government throughout the 1980s, "with patent contempt". and he refused to meet with Botha for five years after Botha was impolite to him in a meeting. Mandela thanked Buthelezi for his constant agitation in this regard, both in a private letter from Robben Island and then publicly after his release in February 1990. In August 1990, Mandela reportedly dismissed the prospect of meeting with Buthelezi because "we cannot meet a man who wants to see the blood of black people"; Jay Naidoo publicly called him a "murderer". He said that he had never endorsed violence and that he could not control any "high ranking members of Inkatha who have been involved in acts of violence in their local situations"; but the New York Times'' noted that his public statements about the violence were "calculatedly ambiguous". The funding was paid directly to a secret account in Buthelezi's name. According to one leaked internal document, the support was designed to be used to "show everyone that [Buthelezi] has a strong base." Later in the 1990s, it was revealed that Inkatha had received significant military assistance from the apartheid military under a project codenamed Operation Marion. Under the project, the South African Defence Force (SADF) provided military training and other aid to Inkatha recruits, who would constitute an elite paramilitary force. About 200 Inkatha members, called the Caprivi 200, were flown to a SADF base in the Caprivi Strip in Namibia (then South West Africa) for military training in early 1986. The project apparently originated in a covert request from Buthelezi. He reportedly approached the state for help training Inkatha protection units for Inkatha leaders, himself among them, who were explicitly or implicitly threatened by political rivals, including the ANC and UDF. The Commission found that Buthelezi had been personally involved in planning the operation (which Buthelezi denied), as had General Magnus Malan; it also concluded that President Botha and the State Security Council had been aware of the scheme. During the same period, the Goldstone Commission and Steyn Commission found evidence that officers of the apartheid police's Security Branch had sold weapons to Inkatha between 1991 and 1994, during the peak of the ANC–Inkatha political violence, including AK 47s smuggled to Inkatha from outside the country; the Steyn Commission also found that the state had continued to provide military training to Inkatha members into the early 1990s.

South African politician (1928–2023)

Prince Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi (,/m//æ//ŋ//ɡ//oʊ/'/s//uː//t//uː// /'/ɡ//æ//tʃ//ə// /,/b//ʊ//t//ə/'/l//eɪ//z//i/; 27 August 1928 – 9 September 2023) was a South African politician and Zulu prince who served as the traditional prime minister to the Zulu royal family from 1954 until his death in 2023. He was appointed to this post by King Bhekuzulu, the son of King Solomon kaDinuzulu, a brother to Buthelezi's mother Princess Magogo kaDinuzulu. Buthelezi was chief minister of the KwaZulu bantustan during apartheid and founded the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP) in 1975, leading it until 2019, and became its president emeritus soon after that. He was a political leader during Nelson Mandela's incarceration (1964–1990) and continued to be so in the post apartheid era, when he was appointed by Mandela as Minister of Home Affairs, serving from 1994 to 2004. Buthelezi was one of the most prominent black politicians of the apartheid era. He was the sole political leader of the KwaZulu government, entering when it was still the native reserve of Zululand in 1970 and remaining in office until it was abolished in 1994. Critics described his administration as a de facto one party state, intolerant of political opposition and dominated by Inkatha (now the IFP), Buthelezi's political movement. In parallel to his mainstream political career, Buthelezi held the Inkosi of the Buthelezi clan, being the son of Inkosi Mathole Buthelezi, and was traditional prime minister to three successive Zulu kings, beginning with King Cyprian Bhekuzulu in 1954. He was himself born into the Zulu royal family; his maternal grandfather was King Dinuzulu who was a son of King Cetshwayo and whom Buthelezi played in the 1964 film called Zulu. While leader of KwaZulu, Buthelezi both strengthened and appropriated the public profile of the monarchy, reviving it as a symbol of Zulu nationalism. Bolstered by royal support, state resources, and Buthelezi's personal popularity, Inkatha became one of the largest political organisations in the country. During the same period, Buthelezi publicly opposed apartheid and often took a patently obstructive stance toward the apartheid government. He lobbied consistently for the release of Nelson Mandela and staunchly refused to accept the nominal independence which the government offered to KwaZulu, correctly judging that it was a superficial independence. However, Buthelezi was derided in some quarters for participating in the bantustan system, a central pillar of apartheid, and for his moderate stance on such issues as free markets, armed struggle, and international sanctions. He became a bête noire of young activists in the Black Consciousness Movement and was repudiated by many in the African National Congress (ANC). A former ANC Youth League member, Buthelezi had aligned himself and Inkatha with the ANC in the 1970s, but in the 1980s their relationship became increasingly acrimonious. It emerged in the 1990s that Buthelezi had accepted money and military assistance from the apartheid regime for Inkatha, which stoked the political violence in KwaZulu and Natal in the 1980s and 1990s. Buthelezi's role during the final decades of apartheid is controversial, and the Truth and Reconciliation Commission found that the IFP under Buthelezi's leadership "was the primary non state perpetrator" of violence during the apartheid era and named him as "a major perpetrator of violence and human rights abuses". of Buthelezi's father, Mathole Buthelezi. Mathole Buthelezi was a traditional leader as chief of the Buthelezi clan and his marriage to the princess was arranged by King Solomon to heal a rift between the clan and the royal family. From 1948 to 1950, he studied at the University of Fort Hare in the eastern Cape Province. In 1948, the National Party was elected to government in South Africa and began implementing a formal system of apartheid, and Buthelezi joined the anti apartheid African National Congress (ANC) Youth League in 1949.</blockquote>Buthelezi made much of his association with Pixley ka Isaka Seme, a founder of the ANC, who was married to his mother's half sister.' Buthelezi later recounted how Luthuli had persuaded him not to "betray my people and seek my own selfish ends away from them". As chief, Buthelezi was involved in organising a ceremony to unveil the Shaka Memorial in Stanger in September 1954, sometimes called the first Shaka Day celebration; he later said that the ceremony was the first time he or King Cyprian Bhekuzulu had ever worn "traditional" Zulu dress, which they did frequently thereafter. He also acted in the 1964 film Zulu, about the Battle of Rorke's Drift, playing the role of his real life great grandfather, King Cetshwayo kaMpande. He said that the role had already been cast but "when they came to my place, mainly to get extras for the battle scenes, then they noticed a family resemblance to my great grandfather. They said how would it be if you played the part? I agreed." Traditional prime minister
In 1954, King Cyprian appointed Buthelezi his traditional prime minister – Buthelezi lists the full title as Traditional Prime Minister to the Zulu Nation (uNdunankulu kaZulu) and Monarch. He was reappointed by Cyprian's successor, King Goodwill Zwelithini, in 1968. He pointed in particular to his paternal great grandfather, Mnyamana, who was a senior advisor to his maternal great grandfather, King Cetshwayo, during the Anglo Zulu War, and also claimed that his father was appointed traditional prime minister to his uncle, King Solomon, in 1925. Buthelezi was rumoured to have been estranged from the royal family from 1968 to 1970,

Government of KwaZulu: 1970–1994

Establishment of KwaZulu

Buthelezi's native region, the native reserve of Zululand, was affected by the Bantu Self Government Act of 1959 and the first Bantu authorities were established in 1959, though with significant resistance from parts of the population and tribal leadership. In 1970, the Zululand Territorial Authority was established, and its 200 members, most of them traditional leaders, unanimously elected Buthelezi its chief executive officer. Over the next decade, Zululand was transformed into KwaZulu, the most populous of the ten bantustans (or "homelands") established by the South African government as part of the NP's scheme of grand apartheid. On some accounts, it was during this struggle that Buthelezi began to appeal to his family's tradition of providing traditional prime ministers, seeking to establish a claim to the premiership. In 1979, for example, he accused the king and Prince Mcwayizeni of attempting to form an opposition party together; Buthelezi told a gathering in 1985:His Majesty and I share a platform and symbolize the unity of our people. His Majesty symbolizes the deep spirit of unity for the Zulu people and I symbolize the political determination to pursue time honoured values which have always been important in the struggle for liberty. Together His Majesty and I share the load which is placed on the Zulu nation. We will never be torn apart. According to Jo Beall, Buthelezi was able to mobilise Zulu symbols in this way because he maintained a support base among the region's other traditional leaders, who "bought into and gave credence to his use of Zulu ethnic identity for political purposes". In Zulu, it was first known as Inkatha ya kaZulu (Inkatha of the Zulu), and then renamed Inkatha ye Sizwe (Inkatha of the Nation) or Inkatha ye Nkululeko ye Sizwe (Inkatha of National Liberation). Yet the new Inkatha had political aims: on the movement's 40th anniversary in 2015 Buthelezi said he had formed the party to "reignite mobilisation among the oppressed majority in the hiatus left by the banning of political parties [by the apartheid government]. From the very beginning, we spoke of equality, freedom, negotiations and peaceful resistance".</blockquote>A notable feature of Inkatha was its "over personalised" character: it was, in R. W. Johnson's phrase, perceived "as a one man band". Buthelezi also attempted to build broader political coalitions. In 1976, he formed the Black Unity Front to coordinate among bantustan leaders, and in January 1978 he spearheaded the formation of a spin off organisation, the South African Black Alliance. elements of his administration were authoritarian, and he was described as personally exerting "iron fisted control" over KwaZulu. This was the result of legal and coercive constraints, and public teachers were required to make time available for students to participate in the activities of Inkatha's youth wing, the Inkatha Youth Brigade. Relations with the apartheid government

KwaZulu independence

Throughout apartheid, Buthelezi stridently refused to accept the full – but largely nominal – political and legal independence proffered by the central government and accepted by the TBVC states. In 1976, at a rally commemorating the Sharpeville massacre, he declared, "South Africa is one country. It has one destiny. Those who are attempting to divide the land of our birth are attempting to stem the tide of history." In April 1981, he rejected "Pretoria's plans for this fraudulent independence", saying that Zulus would "prefer to die in the hundreds of thousands than be forced to be foreigners in their homeland, which is South Africa". In this he partnered with Enos Mabuza, leader of the kaNgwane bantustan, which would have been ceded to Swaziland in its entirety under the proposed deal. Buthelezi argued that the apartheid government intended to use the land deal to extend South African influence in Swaziland; it would have allowed Swaziland to act as a conservative buffer state between South Africa and the left wing, pro ANC Frontline State of Mozambique. Observers also pointed out that it would advance the apartheid policy of stripping black South Africans of South African citizenship

Role in the anti apartheid struggle
The value and sincerity of Buthelezi's contribution to the anti apartheid struggle was a highly polarising issue inside South Africa during apartheid and remains controversial. Archbishop Desmond Tutu famously asked Buthelezi to leave the funeral of Robert Sobukwe in 1978 because supporters of the Pan Africanist Movement objected fiercely to his presence, throwing stones at him and calling him a "sell out" and "government stooge". Though Buthelezi left the event at Tutu's request, he had reportedly told the youths, "If you chaps want to kill me, do so. I am prepared to die"; he reflected afterwards, "I remember our Lord's crucifixion. He was spat on too". In the late 1970s, Tambo of the ANC told Herbert Vilakazi that "these '76 boys" – young ANC members radicalised during the 1976 Soweto Uprising and influenced by Black Consciousness – were insisting that he should "stop having relations with Buthelezi" and "consider him an enemy". Their stance was influenced by that of Steve Biko, the leading Black Consciousness intellectual, who had argued that the apartheid government was exploiting Buthelezi – rather than vice versa, as Buthelezi believed – and that Buthelezi "solves so many conscience problems" both for white South Africans and for foreign observers. Indeed, in his famous exposition of blackness as a political identification, Biko used Buthelezi as his example of someone who appeared black but operated as an extension of a white system. Separate development
Because he was the political leader of a bantustan, Buthelezi's alleged "collaboration" with the separate development scheme, and therefore with apartheid, was highly controversial. Nevertheless, he always insisted that his role in the bantustan system was compatible with his avowed opposition to apartheid. Academic Laurence Piper, conceding that Buthelezi's brand of resistance politics was "peculiar", described him as "a conservative nationalist intent on 'using the system against itself' by advancing anti apartheid politics within the boundaries of government tolerance". In this vein, responding to the accusation that he had switched allegiances, Buthelezi said, "What I'm doing is working within the system". In 1971, Buthelezi said that, "Homeland leaders who have accepted separate development have done so because it is the only way in which Blacks in South Africa can express themselves politically." Also in 1971, in a column for the Rand Daily Mail'' entitled "End This Master Servant Relationship", Buthelezi called on the central government to provide KwaZulu with more land and resources, arguing:The plain truth of the matter is that if the South African Government does not deliver the goods on the basis of its own scheme, the Blacks of this country will become even more disillusioned than at present I am not prepared to say that separate development is the only hope, but it may be a contribution to the development of the situation. It may be a contribution to the unravelling of the problem, insofar as, if we attain full independence, our hand will be strengthened. Gone will be the days then, one hopes, when people will think of us simply as 'kaffirs.' Buthelezi agreed with this assessment. He reminded people that Seme and John Dube had been involved in Inkatha's predecessor movement, founded by his uncle. Throughout the 1980s, there was strong anti Buthelezi sentiment among segments of the ANC. An internal ANC document published in June 1985 said that Buthelezi "projects the illusion of autonomy from the enemy and pretends to pursue national aims. His counterrevolutionary role must be exposed and we must work to win over his supporters and deprive him of his social base."' including through increased emphasis on Zulu nationalism. He opposed the armed struggle and the student protests, consumer boycotts, and union strikes that dominated grassroots anti apartheid organising in that period under the United Democratic Front (UDF). He lobbied for the repeal of the American Comprehensive Anti Apartheid Act of 1986, including on visits to the United States during which he met with President Ronald Reagan in 1986 and President George H. W. Bush in 1991. However, Buthelezi rejected the 1983 Constitution introduced by the NP to establish the Tricameral Parliament, believing, as other activists did, that the political reforms it introduced were insufficient. He campaigned for a "no" vote in the 1983 constitutional referendum alongside Frederik van Zyl Slabbert of the Progressive Federal Party and other liberals. The New York Times observed that he treated P. W. Botha, who led the South African government throughout the 1980s, "with patent contempt". and he refused to meet with Botha for five years after Botha was impolite to him in a meeting. Mandela thanked Buthelezi for his constant agitation in this regard, both in a private letter from Robben Island and then publicly after his release in February 1990. In August 1990, Mandela reportedly dismissed the prospect of meeting with Buthelezi because "we cannot meet a man who wants to see the blood of black people"; Jay Naidoo publicly called him a "murderer". He said that he had never endorsed violence and that he could not control any "high ranking members of Inkatha who have been involved in acts of violence in their local situations"; but the New York Times'' noted that his public statements about the violence were "calculatedly ambiguous". The funding was paid directly to a secret account in Buthelezi's name. According to one leaked internal document, the support was designed to be used to "show everyone that [Buthelezi] has a strong base." Later in the 1990s, it was revealed that Inkatha had received significant military assistance from the apartheid military under a project codenamed Operation Marion. Under the project, the South African Defence Force (SADF) provided military training and other aid to Inkatha recruits, who would constitute an elite paramilitary force. About 200 Inkatha members, called the Caprivi 200, were flown to a SADF base in the Caprivi Strip in Namibia (then South West Africa) for military training in early 1986. The project apparently originated in a covert request from Buthelezi. He reportedly approached the state for help training Inkatha protection units for Inkatha leaders, himself among them, who were explicitly or implicitly threatened by political rivals, including the ANC and UDF. The Commission found that Buthelezi had been personally involved in planning the operation (which Buthelezi denied), as had General Magnus Malan; it also concluded that President Botha and the State Security Council had been aware of the scheme. During the same period, the Goldstone Commission and Steyn Commission found evidence that officers of the apartheid police's Security Branch had sold weapons to Inkatha between 1991 and 1994, during the peak of the ANC–Inkatha political violence, including AK 47s smuggled to Inkatha from outside the country; the Steyn Commission also found that the state had continued to provide military training to Inkatha members into the early 1990s.

Mandela's release from prison in February 1990 coincided with the unbanning of the ANC and other black political organisations, and marked the beginning of the final, most substantive stage of the negotiations which ended apartheid in 1994. To mark this new milieu, in July 1990, Buthelezi relaunched Inkatha as the Inkatha Freedom Party (IFP), a multi ethnic political party which would seek a nationwide following. The organisation also changed its colours (until then the ANC's black, green, and gold), adding red and white to its flag. It was viewed as a breakthrough in white liberal circles and was endorsed by three homeland leaders – Cedric Phatudi (Lebowa), Lucas Mangope (Bophuthatswana) and Hudson Ntsanwisi (Gazankulu).

By the 1980s, Buthelezi was a consistent advocate for political reforms instituting a federal system in South Africa, generally incorporating recognition for racial and ethnic identities – though from 1980 also including a common national citizenship and freedom of movement between regions Importantly, such proposals were compatible with Buthelezi's ambivalent stance on the principle of one man, one vote. By 1981, he was arguing that, as a matter of "practical politics", the principle would not be unobtainable in South Africa in the foreseeable future, given "the reality of racial hatred, racial fear and entrenched power groups". Perhaps in support of the federal principle, during this period Buthelezi altered his rhetoric about KwaZulu's status as a homeland. He began referring to KwaZulu as the "Kingdom of KwaZulu", creating the false impression that the territory was continuous with Shaka's independent Zulu kingdom – and therefore that the disbanding of the homeland would amount to an attempt to disband the Zulu nation.